Stuffy Poussin drawings disappoint the average observer
The latest exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts is just that: drawings by Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665), considered to be the founder of the 17th century French classical movement in art. The 65 works, which will be on display until Nov. 12, are taken from the royal collection of Queen Elizabeth II.
Sounds good enough, but the problem is -- whether it's just a thumbnail sketch of what would later become a masterpiece, or a final rough draft for one -- they're all just drawings. Monocolor ink on paper, sometimes with a little bit of shading; nothing more.
So, the average Joe or Jane who knows nothing of Poussin would be bored to tears by this exhibit. Even those who remember memorizing something by him in HART 206 will find themselves longing to see the finished product instead of the sketch.
But to be fair, art students and Poussin lovers in general would certainly find this exhibit interesting. After all, drawings provide clues as to what the artist had in mind that aren't always apparent in the finished painting. And many of the studies in the exhibit never went on to be paintings; Poussin simply used them to try new ways of capturing emotion.
Poussin spent most of his life in Paris and Rome. The works in the exhibition represent the entire span of his career, including some of his earliest surviving works.
A large majority of the works feature detailed scenes from classical antiquity; it was a distinctive tendency of Poussin to represent Greek or Roman myth. But the collection's focus on human forms and emotions doesn't allow the uninformed viewer to see one of Poussin's greatest contributions, the classical style of landscape.
Poussin focused throughout his career on capturing idealized human emotion in his paintings.
His method was so rational and, indeed, rigorous that in many of his paintings, the result is almost methodical and the scene fails to inspire much emotion from the viewer.
One sees the same method in his drawings. Only rarely is there an initial sketch of just a face or a form; more often, his first drafts are nearly complete and look much as they would in the finished painting. And the drawings fail to add any warmth that isn't there in the painting; instead, what's taken away are the vibrant colors that make the paintings memorable in the first place.
Even the layperson who knows very little of art or Poussin but wants to experience some good classical art should save their energy for something else.
The exhibition is incomplete in its scope of Poussin's work and doesn't really add much to the way one looks at his paintings. Looking him up in the library would probably be more informative, and you'd get to see him in color.
Showing until Nov. 12 at the Museum of Fine Arts, 1001 Bissonnet; open Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-5 pm; Thurs. evenings 5 - 9 p.m.; Sun. 12:15 - 6 p.m.; $3 for adults, $1.50 for students, children and seniors.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the September 1, 1995 issue.
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