DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61252#0161
THE BRIDGEWATER GALLERY.
117
This is a most admirable picture for the arrangement,
drawing, and expression, but the shadows are now too
black and opaque, and it has suffered more than the rest.
It was the sixth of the series completed, and was sent to
M. de Chantelou at the end of the year 1647.
86 Extreme Unction.—A dying man, surrounded by
his family and friends, receives the last solemn sacra-
ment of the catholic church. A priest bending over him
is attended by a youth, bearing a torch in his hand and a
book under his arm; his relatives and friends are seen in
various attitudes of grief and devotion. The wife holding
out the unconscious infant to receive a last blessing from
the dying man is a beautiful incident; the young woman
abandoned to grief at the foot of the bed is perhaps the
“ eldest daughter of her father’s house.” In this picture,
also, the dignity and pathos and religious solemnity of the
treatment cannot be too much praised; but the effect of
light, which may once have been good, is quite spoiled, and
the masses blackened and heavy. It was the first picture of
the series painted by Poussin, and was sent to Paris in 1644.*
On the death of M. de Chantelou, the Regent Duke of
Orleans purchased these pictures out of his gallery for
120,000 francs. On the arrival of the Orleans Gallery in
England, they were estimated at 7001. each, and were ac-
quired by the Duke of Bridgewater. Notwithstanding the
faults which have been pointed out, they rank among the
most celebrated works of the painter.
C. 3 ft. lOlr in. by 5 ft. in. each picture.
87 Moses striking the Rock.—Composition of nineteen
figures in front. To the left of the spectator, a rocky
mountain, near which stand Moses and Aaron; Moses is
seen in profile smiting the rock, and Aaron is apparently
addressing the people, and at the same time pointing to the
* “ Ce tableau fut un de ceux qui lui pint beaucoup lors qu’il ne faisait que
de 1’ebaucher; il ecrivit qu’en viellissant, il se sentait plus que jaimais enflamme
du desir de bien faire; et comme il formait toujours ses pensees sur ce qu’il
avail lu des tableaux des anciens peintres Grecs,\\ manda, que ce devoit fctre un
sujet tel qu’Appelle avait accoutume d’en choisir, lequel se plaisait a representer
des personnes mourantes.”—Felibien.
117
This is a most admirable picture for the arrangement,
drawing, and expression, but the shadows are now too
black and opaque, and it has suffered more than the rest.
It was the sixth of the series completed, and was sent to
M. de Chantelou at the end of the year 1647.
86 Extreme Unction.—A dying man, surrounded by
his family and friends, receives the last solemn sacra-
ment of the catholic church. A priest bending over him
is attended by a youth, bearing a torch in his hand and a
book under his arm; his relatives and friends are seen in
various attitudes of grief and devotion. The wife holding
out the unconscious infant to receive a last blessing from
the dying man is a beautiful incident; the young woman
abandoned to grief at the foot of the bed is perhaps the
“ eldest daughter of her father’s house.” In this picture,
also, the dignity and pathos and religious solemnity of the
treatment cannot be too much praised; but the effect of
light, which may once have been good, is quite spoiled, and
the masses blackened and heavy. It was the first picture of
the series painted by Poussin, and was sent to Paris in 1644.*
On the death of M. de Chantelou, the Regent Duke of
Orleans purchased these pictures out of his gallery for
120,000 francs. On the arrival of the Orleans Gallery in
England, they were estimated at 7001. each, and were ac-
quired by the Duke of Bridgewater. Notwithstanding the
faults which have been pointed out, they rank among the
most celebrated works of the painter.
C. 3 ft. lOlr in. by 5 ft. in. each picture.
87 Moses striking the Rock.—Composition of nineteen
figures in front. To the left of the spectator, a rocky
mountain, near which stand Moses and Aaron; Moses is
seen in profile smiting the rock, and Aaron is apparently
addressing the people, and at the same time pointing to the
* “ Ce tableau fut un de ceux qui lui pint beaucoup lors qu’il ne faisait que
de 1’ebaucher; il ecrivit qu’en viellissant, il se sentait plus que jaimais enflamme
du desir de bien faire; et comme il formait toujours ses pensees sur ce qu’il
avail lu des tableaux des anciens peintres Grecs,\\ manda, que ce devoit fctre un
sujet tel qu’Appelle avait accoutume d’en choisir, lequel se plaisait a representer
des personnes mourantes.”—Felibien.