Poussin and the Dance: a small but revelatory exhibition, packed with ‘fabulous moments’

Poussin’s reputation as an ‘austere landscapist’ is only half the story, proves this National Gallery show

Nicolas Poussin, ‘A Dance to the Music of Time’, about 1634
Nicolas Poussin, ‘A Dance to the Music of Time’, about 1634
(Image credit: The Trustees of the Wallace Collection)

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) is “a problematic presence in art”, said Waldemar Januszczak in The Sunday Times. “Nothing about him quite fits”: although he was French, he spent most of his career in Rome, and while his dates are roughly equivalent to Rembrandt’s, you might assume they had lived in different centuries altogether.

Poussin was a stickler for precision, taking a formal and academic approach that makes much of his work “cool and erudite to the point of being off-putting”. Yet as this new exhibition at the National Gallery shows, Poussin’s reputation as an “austere landscapist” is only half the story.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up