Reading the Art World episode eleven: a conversation with Emily A. Beeny, curator at The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and co-author with Francesca Whitlum-Cooper of the book, Poussin and the Dance, published in 2021 by the J. Paul Getty Museum.
One of the reasons for organizing this exhibition was to offer visitors, and readers of the book, a different way into this artist, to open up a means of considering his work through our own embodied experience. Yes, it is important to have an understanding of classical mythology to really get into the weeds with Poussin, which are a very fun place to be. But in order to derive joy from his work, I think the dancing pictures demonstrate to us that maybe you just need to have danced at your cousin's wedding. Maybe there's a way of looking at these pictures that draws on more universal experiences, too. — Emily A. Beeny
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In this episode, we take an in-depth look at Nicolas Poussin in 17th century Rome—a city rich with classical sculpture from antiquity and Renaissance paintings that led the artist to formulating an entirely new style of painting. This style would make Poussin the model for three centuries of artists in the French classical tradition, from Jacques-Louis David and Edgar Degas to Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso. Long considered one of the most influential French painters of the 17th century, the French Neoclassicist Poussin is seen in a wholly new light.
Co-author Emily A. Beeny talks with me about how Poussin’s paintings from the 1620s and 1630s of gods and goddesses, biblical and historical figures, are choreographed across his canvases like dancers on a stage. Tracing the motif of dance throughout this period, the book examines how Poussin devised new methods of composition and depicting motion. We explore Poussin’s artistic process and influences, notably his use of wax figurines to choreograph the compositions he drew and painted.
Poussin and the Dance is the first exhibition and first published study devoted to Poussin’s dancing pictures.
The publication was produced in tandem with the exhibition at the National Gallery in London (October 2021 - January 2022) and at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles (February - May 2022).
The Realm of Flora, 1631, by Nicolas Poussin. Collection of the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.
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