Nicolas Poussin, Eté, 1660-64
Melissa Dunn
Traveling to Paris, France has
always been a dream of mine; immersing myself in another culture, getting to
see the sights, the art, and eat the yummy food were all part of that dream.
Well folks, NEVER give up on your dreams and what you want! I can now say that
I have been to Paris! Me, a college student from Fort Smith, Arkansas, who also
works as a waitress, went to Paris France about a month ago. Now—to get there I
had to do something I don’t like: giving a presentation. But I did it on an
amazing work of art. The tradeoff was well worth it.
First, let me say that this was for
a class studying the art in Paris. What better way to study the art in Paris than to get to go there and
see it in person? Now, before leaving, everyone in the class studied a
different work of art that we had to know like the back of our hand and present
to the class once we got there. My work of art was Eté by Nicolas Poussin.
Nicolas Poussin, Eté, 1660-1664. Oil on Canvas. Paris,
Musée du Louvre (Photo: Melissa Dunn)
A
small fact about me: I hate giving presentations. I get very nervous, but I was
excited about this one because it was over a work by Nicolas Poussin. Poussin
was an amazing painter and one of the first to paint landscapes. Eté means summer
in French, and this painting is one in a four-painting series. Each one of the
four depicts one the four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. For
Poussin to sell these landscape paintings he would often include Christian
iconography in
the foreground. At this time, people would buy paintings with references to
different stories from the Bible. Poussin also thought about the time of day
for each painting in this series. Spring
is in the early morning in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve. Summer is in the afternoon, with a scene
in a field of wheat being harvested. Ruth and Boaz can be seen in the
foreground. Fall is in the evening with
a scene of the Israelite spies returning with grapes for the promised land of Canaan.
And the final season is Winter, with
the story of the Flood at night.
Here you can see a detail of Ruth and Boaz in the foreground
of Eté. I wanted to include this photograph because you
can really see Ruth’s emotion, pleading with Boaz to glean his land to get a
little bit to eat. (Photo: Melissa Dunn)
I really enjoyed learning more about Poussin,
both as an artist and this series. Leading up to leaving for Paris I wasn’t
nervous about the presentation at all. I felt like I knew my stuff very well
and that I was going to do well. Even after we were in Paris for a few days, I
wasn’t nervous, until the night before. Walking to the Musée du Louvre, the
nerves started to build more and more. I had to wait until after lunch to give
my presentation. My class and I got done eating and started making our way to Eté. I even remember we stopped one room
away from where it was located, to talk about another painting. I peeked around
the corner to sneak a look ahead to find my painting. I use that terminology,
“my painting” because after studying and studying this work of art, I felt like
it was a part of me.
Seeing pictures of it was so different than the real
thing. It was so much bigger than I imagined. It was also so amazing to see all
of the work, and time Poussin put into all of the details of the painting. Also,
I noticed when I saw it in person the colors were a lot different than they
were in reproduction. The colors are very nice, and the series as a whole is laid
out on one wall. Standing in front of the wall, the viewer can really take in and
appreciate all four of these paintings.
I asked one of my classmates, Hayla May, to take photos of me while
I was presenting. I really liked this one because you can see the passion that
I have for Poussin and his work. March 18, 2018 (Photo: Hayla May)
I gave my presentation and I felt great about
it. I think this series is amazing. To get the full effect you would have to
see it in person. The whole experience of this trip was amazing. I got to check
some things off my bucket list and I learned a lot while I was there, not just
about the art but about France as well. I also feel more confident about giving
presentations in the future. Now I just have a dream of getting to go back to
Paris someday soon.
This photograph was taken after I was done presenting. I wanted this as a keepsake for this whole experience of
presenting a work of Art in Paris. (Photo: Hayla May)
Sources Consulted
Christianson,
Keith. “Poussin and The Seasons.” New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Clark,
Kenneth. Landscape into Art. New
York, 1976.
Ferguson,
George. Signs & Symbols in Christian
Art. London, 1971
Friedlaender,Walter.
Poussin. New York, 1964
Guillaume, Kazerouni. “Summer, or Ruth and Boaz.” In Collection & Louvre Palace.
Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2018. https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/summer-or-ruth-and-boaz
Harris,
Ann Sutherland. Seventeenth-Century Art
& Architecture. Upper Saddle
River, 2008
“Introducing
Formal Analysis:Landscape.” Getty Museum. April 30, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIbTrG-SlDE
O’Kane,
Martin. “The Iconography of the Book of Ruth.” Interpretation, vol. 64/2. 2010:
130-145
Rosenberg,
Pierre and Christiansen, Keith. Poussin
and Nature: Arcadian Visions. New York,
2008
Sprinson
de Jesus, Mary. “Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pous/hd_pous.htm. October 2003
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