NICOLAS POUSSIN | Studies of an imperial throne and a vase

Jean-Baptiste Florentin Gabriel de Meyran, marquis de Lagoy (1764-1729), Aix-en-Provence (L.1710, en bas à droite) ; 
Comte Moritz von Fries (1777-1826), Vienne (L.2903 en bas à gauche ; cent cinquante des meilleurs dessins de sa collection furent acquis par Lawrence vers 1820) ; 
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), Londres (L.2445 en bas à droite) ; 
Probalement Samuel Woodburn (1786-1853), Londres ;
Peut-être William Coningham (1815-1884), Brighton (L.476) ;
Acquis en mars 2003 par le collectionneur d'une collection particulière française formée au milieu du XIX^e siècle.

Rennes, 2012, n°36 (notice par Louis-Antoine Prat) ;
Sceaux, 2013 (sans catalogue)

P. Rosenberg, "Un ensemble de copies de dessins d'après l'antique de Poussin", Studiolo, n°4, 2006, p.137, note 18, p.140, sous « feuillet 56 », fig.34 p.158

Hinged to mount with japan paper tabs, and with further tabs attached on three sides, to facilitate handling. Some light foxing and surface dirt. Slightly discoloured towards edges, presumably from former mounting to album sheet. Overall condition nonetheless good and fresh. Sold unframed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This fine, expansively drawn study of two antique objects, a throne and a vase, only came to light some ten years after the publication of Pierre Rosenberg and Louis-Antoine Prat’s exhaustive catalogue raisonné of Poussin’s drawings¹, and is a rare addition to the very small existing corpus of the artist’s highly important and influential studies after the antique.  Poussin’s admiration for classical antiquity is readily apparent in every aspect of his style, and he considered the past, which to him included not only Roman works but also those of Raphael and Giulio Romano, as the essential basis of study for artists.  Some eighty of his drawings after the antique are known, but curiously it has emerged that in many, if not most, cases they are actually copied after prints or drawings, rather than from the original objects, which he would have had ample opportunity to study while he was in Rome.  As Florent Heintz has kindly pointed out, the upper half of the Adrien Collection drawing records the left side of a Roman marble throne (fig. 1), now in the Glyptothek, Munich.  We are also grateful to Rea Alexandratos, of the Royal Collection, for informing us that this throne, known from the early 16th century, was discovered in the ruins of a building near to the Roman church of San Giovanni e Paolo, and that in Poussin's time it was in the Mattei collection - to which Poussin would very probably have had access - displayed at the foot of the main staircase in the Palazzo Mattei di Giove.  A celebrated object from antiquity, the throne was recorded in at least three known 16^th-century drawings of motifs after the antique, in Kassel (fig. 2), Berlin and Florence.²   It is also depicted in one of the many drawings of these subjects made by Pietro Testa, for the Museo Cartaceo (‘Paper Museum’) of Cassiano dal Pozzo, a drawing that is now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.³ Poussin was very much involved with the circle of Cassiano, and if he did not make his drawing from the original marble throne, it is likely that it derives from the Testa drawing at Windsor. 

It is surprising how often Poussin seems to have chosen to make his drawings of antique sculptures and objects not from the originals.  Some thirteen of the sheets of studies after the antique that were catalogued by Rosenberg and Prat in fact refer to engraved images from the Galleria Giustiniani, the catalogue of Vincenzo Giustiniani's collection of antiquities, published in 1631, and a variant of the throne seen here is in fact to be found in plate 133.  No prototype, sculpted, drawn or engraved, has yet been found for the vase in the lower half of the present drawing, but that part of the composition was, however, copied in an anonymous drawing, now in the Louvre (inv. 32509), and also on folio 56 of an album of copies after Poussin, which Rosenberg has dubbed the Album Louviers¸ after the location where it came to light. 

Poussin’s drawings of this type are generally thought to have been made after the artist returned to Rome from Paris, around 1642-45.  He seems to have made them for his own use, as Rosenberg writes: '...les dessins de Poussin constituèrent un garde-manger, un réservoir dans lesquels l'artiste puisa régulièrement pour tel détail des ses tableaux, pour telle idée de ses compositions.'⁴ 

After Poussin’s death in 1665, many of his copies after the antique were in the hands of his secretary, Jean Dughet, who offered an album of them for sale in 1678 with the following description: 'Un libro di disegni fatti da monsieur Poussin, cioe dal antico...per suo studio...' further suggesting that they could be engraved for the public good and for the use of French, Dutch and Flemish students.⁵   It is unclear when this album was dismembered, but drawings from it can be recognized by the red chalk framing lines around them, traces of which are also apparent on the present sheet, at the lower left edge.  As Pierre Rosenberg has described, two collections of anonymous copies after the drawings in the Dughet album, known as the Album de Louviers and the Carnet de Rome, are also known, adding to our understanding of the contents of the original album in Dughet’s collection.⁶

This beautiful drawing is characteristic of Poussin's style in its fine lines and broad yet brilliantly modulated use of brown wash.  Perhaps more than any other artist of his time, Poussin was able to control his media so as to produce drawings that are not only very precise in their representation of the subject, but are also superbly harmonious, and elegant in their mise-en-page.

^1. P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Nicolas Poussin, Catalogue raisonné des dessins, 2 vols., Milan 1994

^2. Kassel, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Graphische Sammlung, Codex Fol. A45, fol. 54 recto; Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Codex Destailleur A, fol. 63 recto;  Florence, Uffizi, inv. 1954 A verso

^3. Windsor Castle, Royal Library, inv. RL 8395

^4. Rosenberg, op. cit., 2006, p. 136

^5. Idem., p. 134  

^6.  Idem., pp. 129-166