Landscape with Saint John on Patmos
Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665)
1640
View the original$19
Type
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
In Christian tradition, Saint John the Evangelist is thought to be the youngest of Christ’s twelve disciples—but Nicolas Poussin depicted him here as an elderly man. The disciple has retired to the Greek island of Patmos to write the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation; he is shown at work with his attribute, an eagle, just behind him. Poussin constructed an idealized landscape, shaping natural forms according to geometric principles and reinforcing the measured order of the composition by arranging them parallel to the picture plane. The resulting serene setting is replete with references to Greco-Roman civilization, including column fragments, an obelisk, and a temple. For Poussin and his friends and patrons, Christianity was closely linked to Stoic philosophy, which emphasized reason, unity, and serenity.
Scholars now regard Poussin’s art, more than that of any other seventeenth-century European artist, as synonymous with classicism, the philosophy that prized the model of ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture. Born in France, Poussin spent most of his career in Rome, painting for an educated elite. Along with Landscape with Saint Matthew (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), painted the same year, Landscape with Saint John on Patmos may have been part of a planned series including all four evangelists.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 100.3 × 136.4 cm (39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.)
Museum record · 7 owners · 18 exhibitions
Provenance
- Commissioned by abate Gian Maria Roscioli (died 1644), Rome, and paid for, with its pendant (Landscape with Saint Mathew, now Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) on October 28, 1640 for 40 écus documents published by Barroero 1979 and Corradini 1979).
- Probably in a French collection by 1680.
- François-Antoine Robit, Paris, sold Paillet and Delaroche, Paris, May 11 and following, 1801, to Naudou acting for Michael Bryan, for Fr 7,100; sold by Bryan, probably shortly thereafter, to Sir Simon Clarke, Bt (died 1832), Oakhill, Hertfordshire, for 1,000 gns.; sold Christie’s, London, May 8-9, 1840, to Geddes for 86 gns.
- Andrew Geddes, A.R.A. (died 1844), London; by descent to his widow, Adela Plimer Geddes (died 1881), offered for sale, Christie’s, London, April 12, 1845, bought in; offered for sale, Christie’s, London, November 30, 1867, bought in.
- Acquired on the London art market by Max Rothschild, 1918.
- Possibly identical with the picture that was sold at Christie’s, London, December 16, 1927, to Leger for £21.
- E. A. Fleischmann Gallery, Munich, by 1930; sold to the Art Institute, 1930.
Exhibitions
- London, British Institution, Works of Ancient Masters and Deceased British Artists, 1861.
- Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1933.
- Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1934.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, October 1939 (no cat.).
- The Arts Club of Chicago, Origins of Modern Art, 1940.
- Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe during the XVIth – XVIIth Centuries, 1948.
- The Toledo Museum of Art, Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665, 1959, traveled to Minneapolis.
- Paris, Musée du Louvre, Exposition Nicolas Poussin, 1960, traveled to Rouen.
- Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, 1961 (no cat.).
- New York, Wildenstein, Works of Art Lent from American Collections: The Italian Heritage, 1967.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, The Artist Looks at the Landscape, 1974 (no cat.).
- New York, Wildenstein, Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard, 1975.
- Rome, Accademia di Francia a Roma, Villa Medici, Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665, 1977-78; Dusseldorf ( in German cat.).
- Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, La Peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, 1982, traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Art Institute of Chicago.
- Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665, September 27, 1994-January 2, 1995; London, Royal Academy of Arts, January 20-April 16, 1995.
- Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Negotiating Rapture: The Power of Art to Transform Lives, June 21-October 20, 1996.
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions, 2008.
- Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Nature et Idéal: Le Paysage à Rome, 1600-1650, March 8-June 6, 2011, 2011; Madrd, Museo National del Prado, June 27-September 25, 2011.
