Nicolas Poussin, 'Landscape with a Man killed by a Snake', probably 1648

Landscape with a Man killed by a Snake

Nicolas Poussin

Room 29

About the work

Overview

A man has been crushed by a snake and lies dead beside a pond: his body is limp and his skin a greenish-grey. We see a man and woman whose gestures and movement show their fear and surprise. The way the landscape is constructed reveals the drama in stages: the running man sees the dead man and the snake, the woman sees only the fleeing man and the fishermen in the distance see only her. Trees are used to frame the action and the zigzag placement of the people in the landscape and the alternating areas of light and shade lead our eye deeper into the distance.

This scene is probably inspired by the notorious snake-infested area of Fondi, south-east of Rome, which Poussin and the painting’s owner, Jean Pointel, may have visited. The subject may be based on an actual event that Poussin heard about or witnessed.

In-depth

A man has been crushed by a snake and lies dead beside a pond: his body is limp and his skin putrid with a greenish-grey appearance. A man and woman react with fear and surprise, yet there’s something still and static about their gestures and poses. The way the landscape is constructed reveals the drama in stages: the running man sees the dead man and the snake, the woman sees only the fleeing man and the fishermen in the distance see only her. Trees are used to frame the action and the zigzag placement of the people in the landscape and the alternating areas of light and shade lead our eye deeper into the distance.

It is unlikely that this scene relates to a story from ancient mythology: several episodes in Apuleius’s tales known as The Metamorposes include snakes killing people but the details do not match the scene we see here. It has also been suggested that this painting shows the death of Opheltes taken from Greek mythology, but Opheltes was a child when attacked by a snake, and here we see a man.

The theme of this painting was probably inspired by the notorious snake-infested area of Fondi, south-east of Rome, and close to the cities of Terracina and Amyclae, which may be the ones shown in the background. However, during the seventeenth century Fondi was abandoned, and in the painting we can see many people in the landscape, so the setting is at least partly imaginary. Poussin spent most of his career in Rome, and in 1647 possibly visited this place with Jean Pointel, the patron for whom he painted this picture. Later sources imply that Poussin had heard of or witnessed an actual event when a man was killed by a snake, and this gave him the idea for the painting.

Pointel, a Parisian merchant, was one of Poussin’s most prestigious patrons. He also owned the artist’s Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice, now in the Louvre, Paris, which shows Eurydice being killed by a snake. Both of Pointel’s paintings show scenes of sudden death in peaceful countryside.

The theme of the snake in the grass also alludes to the whims of fortune. This painting shows the reversals of fortune or luck created by an encounter with a dangerous animal. To the left of the seated woman, and barely visible, three people recline in the landscape and are unknowingly risking their lives.

Poussin’s composition is inspired by art from classical antiquity, which is particularly evident in the somewhat rigid pose of the man in blue. The condition of the paint surface is very poor and the colours have darkened over time, which makes it difficult for us to appreciate the painting’s original appearance. Despite this, Poussin’s skill can be seen in the reflection of buildings in the lake and the overlapping brushstrokes and varied green tones of the foliage in the different types of tree.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Landscape with a Man killed by a Snake
Artist: Nicolas Poussin
Artist dates: 1594 - 1665
Date made: probably 1648
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 118.2 × 197.8 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1947
Inventory number: NG5763
Location: Room 29
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 18th-century French Frame

Provenance

Painted for the Parisian merchant Jean Pointel (d. 1660), perhaps by 31 August 1648; recorded in his posthumous inventory of 20–22 December 1660 with an estimated value of 1000 livres; sold by his executors and bought by [Nicolas?] du Plessis-Rambouillet (c. 1576–1664) for 1800 livres; by October 1684 in the collection of Denis Moreau (c. 1630–1707), who in 1689 became premier valet de chambre to the duke of Burgundy; thence, presumably by descent, to Moreau’s nephew, François-Louis de Nyert, marquis de Gambais, seigneur de Neuville (d. 1719); then to his son Louis de Nyert (d. 1 736), among whose posts was governorship of the Louvre and whose posthumous inventory of 2 May 1736 records NG 5763 in his apartment there; then presumably to Louis’s son, Alexandre-Denis Nyert (d. 1744), and by descent in the family; bought from the family (but not at the de Nyert sale, Paris, 30 March 1772) by the engraver and dealer Robert Strange; Robert Strange sale, Christie’s, 5–6 March 1773 (lot 113, £650 to Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th baronet of Wynnstay, near Wrexham, and 20 St James’s Square, London); presumably the painting recorded in 1885 in the Green Drawing Room, Wynnstay, as ‘Large Oil Painting in Gilt Frame Landscape with figures by Poussin’; by descent to Sir H.L. Watkin Williams-Wynn, 8th baronet at Wynnstay (where seen by E.K. Waterhouse in 1939), from whom purchased (through Horace Buttery) in 1947 for £6500.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Humphrey Wine, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings’, London 2001; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1702

F. Le Comte, Cabinet des singularitez d'architecture, peinture, sculpture, et graveure, 2nd edn, Brussels 1702
1725

A. Félibien, Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres, Trévoux 1725
1730

A. de Monville, La vie de Pierre Mignard, premier peintre du roy, par M. l'abbé de Monville, avec le poëme de Moliere sur les peintures du Val-de-Grace. et deux dialogues de M. de Fenelon, Paris 1730
1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1914

O. Grautoff, Nicolas Poussin: Sein Werk und sein Leben, Munich 1914
1939

E.K. Waterhouse, 'Nicolas Poussin's Landscape with a Snake', The Burlington Magazine, LXXIV, 1939
1944

A. Blunt, 'The Heroic and the Ideal Landscape of Nicolas Poussin', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, VII, 1944, pp. 154-68
1949

F.J.B. Watson, 'A New Poussin for the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XCI/550, 1949, pp. 14-8
1952

G. de Tervarent, 'Le véritable sujet du paysage au serpent de Poussin à la National Gallery de Londres', Gazette des beaux-arts, II, 1952, pp. 343-50
1954

F.S. Licht, Die Entwicklung der Landschaft in den werken von Nicolas Poussin, Basel 1954
1955

The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
1957

Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
1960

J. Shearman, 'Les dessins de paysages de Poussin', in A. Chastel (ed.), Nicolas Poussin: Actes du Colloque, Paris 1960, vol. 1, pp. 184ff
1964

C. Dempsey, Nicolas Poussin and the Natural Order, Ann Arbor 1964
1966

A. Blunt, The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: A Critical Catalogue, London 1966
1967

L. Glózer, 'Archemoros oder der Tod des Opheltes. Zu Poussins "Landschaft mit der Schlange"', in Kunstgeschichtliche Studien für Kurt Bauch: Zum 70: Geburtstag von seinen Schülern, Munich 1967, pp. 211-2
1969

K. Badt, Die Kunst des Nicolas Poussin, Cologne 1969
1974

W. Stein, Künstler und Werke, Bern 1974
1980

D. Wild, Nicolas Poussin: Band I, Leben, Werk, Exkurse, Band II, Katalog der Werke, Zürich 1980
1982

H.D. Russell, Claude Lorrain 1600-1682 (exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 17 October 1982 - 2 February 1983), Washington 1982
1986

R. Démoris, 'L'étrange affaire de l'homme au serpent: Poussin et le paysage', Cahiers de la litterature du XVIIe siècle, 8, 1986, pp. 197-218
1990

M.R. Lagerlöf, Ideal Landscape: Annibale Carracci, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, New Haven 1990
1990

A. Wintermute, Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France (exh. cat. P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., 1 November - 15 December 1990), New York 1990
1992

A. Grepmair-Müller, Landschaftskompositionen von Nicolas Poussin, Frankfurt am Main 1992
1994

P. Rosenberg, Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665: Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan 1994
1994

R. Verdi and P. Rosenberg, Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665 (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 27 September 1994 - 2 January 1995; Royal Academy of Arts, 19 January - 9 April 1995), Paris 1994
1995

S. Conrad, 'Félibien's Sources for His Life of Poussin', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVII/1106, 1995, pp. 321-2
1995

D. Mahon, 'The Written Sources for Poussin's Landscapes, with Special Reference to His Two Landscapes with Diogenes', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVII/1104, 1995, pp. 176-82
1996

E. Cropper and C. Dempsey, Nicholas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting, Princeton 1996
1996

S. McTighe, Nicolas Poussin's Landscape Allegories, Cambridge 1996
1996

E. Mai, Das Capriccio als Kunstprinzip: Zur Vorgeschichte der Moderne von Arcimboldo und Callot bis Tiepolo und Goya (exh. cat. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 8 December 1996 - 16 February 1997; Kunsthaus, 14 March - 1 June 1997; Kunsthistorisches, 29 June - 21 September 1997), Milan 1996
1998

H. Keazor, Poussins Parerga. Quellen, Entwicklung und Bedeutung der Kleinkompositionen in den Gemiilden Nicolas Poussins, Regensburg 1998
1998

M. Bull, 'Poussin and Nonnos', The Burlington Magazine, CXL/1148, 1998, pp. 724-38
1999

L. Marin, Sublime Poussin, trans. C. Porter, Stanford 1999
1999

C. Stefani, 'Poussin, Lorrain, Dughet e Salvator Rosa: Ricezione e fortuna del paesaggio classico tra Sette e Ottocento', Studi di storia dell'arte, X, 1999, pp. 201-30
1999

N. Saint, 'Pour l'amour d'un plaisir sévère: Following Louis Marin', in M. Heusser et al. (eds), Text and Visuality: Word and Image Interactions, Amsterdam 1999, vol. 3, pp. 65-75
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings, London 2001
2003

C. Pace, 'Collecting French Seventeenth-Century Paintings for the Nation', Art History, XXVI/2, 2003, pp. 281-315
2004

S. Barker, 'Poussin, Plague, and Early Medicine', Art Bulletin, LXXXVI/4, 2004, pp. 659-89
2006

T.J. Clark, The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing, New Haven 2006
2006

P. Manoury, 'Poussin philosophe', Dix-huitième siècle, 38, 2006, pp. 611-27
2007

P. Rosenberg and K. Christiansen, Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions (exh. cat. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 8 October 2007 - 13 January 2008; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 12 February - 11 May 2008), Bilbao 2007
2008

W. Sauerländer, 'Paysages de Poussin: Les limites de l'interprétation iconologique', Studiolo, 6, 2008, pp. 191-232

Frame

This eighteenth-century French carved and gilded frame is designed in the late Louis XIV style. Crafted from oak wood, the frame has a pinewood back edge featuring carved dentils. The top of the frame is adorned with a plain, half-round rail, leading to cartouches decorated with shell-and-palmette motifs. Between these cartouches, C-scrolls with palmettes are positioned, facing both inwards and outwards. Following the sanded flat is a sight edge embellished with French acanthus leaves. The current gilding is a second layer, probably applied during alterations to the frame, which has obscured the engraved lines originally made by the ‘répareur’.

Nicolas Poussin himself did not favour such elaborate French period frames; he preferred simple, matt-gilded mouldings.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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You've viewed 6 of 16 works

Nicolas Poussin, 'Landscape with a Man killed by a Snake', probably 1648

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Bibliography

Frame

About this record

Images

More works by Nicolas Poussin