The Four Seasons (frLes Quatre Saisons) was the last set of four oil paintings completed by the French painterNicolas Poussin (1594–1665). The set was painted in Rome between 1660 and 1664 for theDuc de Richelieu, the grand-nephew ofCardinal Richelieu. Each painting is an elegiac landscape withOld Testament figures conveying the different seasons and times of the day. Executed when the artist was in failing health suffering from a tremor in his hands, theSeasons are a philosophical reflection on the order in the natural world. Theiconography evokes not only the Christian themes of death and resurrection but also the pagan imagery of classical antiquity: the poetic worlds ofMilton'sParadise Lost andVirgil'sGeorgics. The paintings currently hang in a room on their own in theLouvre in Paris.

By his absolute humility, by his effacement of himself, by his refusal to use any tricks or overstate himself, Poussin has succeeded in identifying himself with nature, conceived as a manifestation of the divine reason. TheSeasons are among the supreme examples of pantheistic landscape painting.

Jamais peut-être, dans toute la peinture occidentale, des choses aussi nombreuses et parfois si difficiles n'avaient été dites avec une telle simplicité. Jamais un peintre ne s'était aussi pleinement identifié à l'ordre du monde. Mais cette identification n'est ni « une projection » ni une confidence : là est le sens de cette impersonalité que l'on a pu reprocher à Poussin, et qui fait sa grandeur.

The French born painterNicolas Poussin had made his home in Rome since the age of 30. At the end of his life, from 1660 to 1664, he undertook his last set of paintings,The Four Seasons, a work commissioned by theDuc de Richelieu, grand-nephew ofCardinal Richelieu. Work on the paintings was necessarily slow, because of general ill health and the continuing tremor in his hands, which had affected Poussin since 1640 and turned him into a recluse.

TheSeasons are a continuation of Poussin's mythological landscapes, depicting the power and grandeur of nature, "benign in Spring, rich in Summer, somber yet fruitful in Autumn, and cruel in Winter."^[4] The series also represents successive times of the day: early morning for Spring, midday for Summer, the evening for Autumn, and a moonlit night for Winter. For bothstoic philosophers and forearly Christians the seasons represented the harmony of nature; but for Christians the seasons, often depicted personified surrounding theGood Shepherd, and the succession of night and day also symbolized the death and resurrection ofChrist and the salvation of man (1 Clement 9: 4–18, 11: 16-20s:1 Clement (William Wake translation)).

Departing from the traditions ofclassical antiquity ormedieval illuminations, where the seasons were represented either by allegorical figures or by scenes from everyday country life, Poussin chose to symbolize each season by a specific episode from theOld Testament. For Spring he choseAdam and Eve in theGarden of Eden fromGenesis; for SummerBoaz discovering Ruth gleaning corn in his fields from theBook of Ruth; for Autumn theIsraelitespies returning with grapes from thePromised Land ofCanaan from theBook of Numbers; and for Winter theFlood from theBook of Noah. In addition to the obvious seasonal references, some commentators have seen further less immediate biblical references. The bread and wine in Summer and grapes in Autumn could refer to theeucharist. The whole sequence could also represent Man's path to redemption: his state of innocence before theoriginal sin andthe Fall in Spring; the union that gave rise to thebirth of Christ through theHouse of David in Summer; theMosaic laws in Autumn; and finally theLast Judgement in Winter.^[5]

As well as this Christian iconography, the paintings could also contain mythological allusions to four deities ofclassical antiquity.^[5] In Spring, Poussin reuses the device of a rising sun, previously employed in theBirth of Bacchus to denoteApollo, the father ofBacchus. In Summer Ruth with her sheaf of corn could denoteCeres, the goddess of grain and fertility. In Autumn the grapes could be a reference to Bacchus. Theserpent is a symbol used in Poussin's previous oeuvre.^[6] In Winter the snake slithering over the rocks could be an allegorical reference to theclassical underworld andPluto.

Given their complex iconographic references, the paintings themselves have a deceptive simplicity. However, in their composition, Poussin, painting in his seventies, used all the experience acquired through his life. Understatement is notable throughout the set. No attempt is made to dazzle the viewer with technique and Poussin seems to have taken great pains to leave behind all trace of the artist and let the grandeur of Nature speak for itself.^[1]

InSpring orThe Earthly Paradise, Poussin depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden next to theTree of Knowledge. It is before theoriginal sin and subsequentexpulsion from Eden: no snake is visible as Eve points out theforbidden fruit to Adam. The picture shows a luxuriantly vegetated wood with varying gradations of greenery. Ominously the foreground is dimly lit. In the distance the morning sun reveals swans on a lake with meadows and mountains behind; early morning light can also be seen glimmering through a gap in the rocks and shrubs in the middle ground, echoing the iconography ofThe Birth of Bacchus.

Adam and Eve form a small static couple in the center of the calm woodland, dwarfed by the lush vegetation. Equally small, the robed figure of theCreator can be seen high up on a cloud surrounded by ahalo of light; He has pointed away from the viewer, departing as if aware of what is to come. The figures in the composition recall classic depictions inmediaeval miniatures.^[7][8]

AsClark (1961) comments, the work is a perfect visual counterpart toJohn Milton'sParadise Lost, written in the same period.

InSummer orRuth and Boaz, the scene is built up in rectangular blocks behind the three principal figures in the foreground, who are seen in profile as in abas-relief. Ruth the Moabite kneels before Boaz, as his servant looks on benignly. Two parallel walls of corn are visible, along with the detailed decorative painting of the individual stems. The cornfield itself forms the center of the painting. Its jagged edge leads the eye to the rocks, sea and mountains in the distance. In the middle ground, a group of reapers form an extendedfrieze, while further back a group of five horses can be seen, executed in the classical style of thetriumphal arches ofAncient Rome.^[9] The bucolic scene is completed by figures of a peasant playing on bagpipes to the right and, on the left, a reaper quenching his thirst from a flask of wine while women prepare bread in the shade of the large tree in the foreground.

AsClark (1961) has commented, in Poussin's elegiac treatment ofSummer "the mood of theGeorgics is raised to a kind of sacramental gravity."

The rougher texture and trembling brushwork evident inAutumn orThe Spies with the Grapes of the Promised Land suggest that this might have been the last painting of the set to be completed.^[10] The lush vegetation of Spring is replaced by stony ground with small clumps of grass. Only the apple tree in the center bears fruit; the leaves are already beginning to fall from the two small trees on the left. Long shadows are cast by the evening sun, whose fading light catches a town nestling under a mountain in the distance and buildings perched on a rocky ledge to the right. The observer's eye is gently directed towards the central figures of the two Israelite spies by the lines of clouds and cliffs beneath them. As related in theBook of Numbers, they need a pole to carry the enormous grapes; one of the spies holds a branch of oranges as large as melons. In the middle ground are a fisherman and a woman with a basket of fruit on her head.

In the centralbas-relief composition, Poussin has used elements from an allegorical engraving from 1607 byHieronymus Wierix for the classical figures of the two men with grapes. In Poussin's painting, a woman can be seen gathering fruit on a ladder leaning against the tree, with the ladder appearing to rise out of the grapes. In the original the body of Christ rises from the grapes. This has suggested an iconographic interpretation of the apple tree as theTree of Life – the heavenly rewards promised in paradise after salvation.

Winter orThe Flood is most commonly referred to by its French titleLe Deluge.^[11] In this highly original painting Poussin depicts the final stages of the horrific cataclysm ofThe Flood with restraint. The picture records the moment when the floods are finally covering the plain with the last few rocky outcrops disappearing under the rising waters. The horizontal lines used in his other paintings to create a sense of order here lead the eye through the painting with increasing unease. The moonlit scene is colored in different shades of bluey grey, interrupted by flashes of lightning.The dim outlines ofNoah's Ark can be made out floating on the calmer waters in the far distance. Contrasting with the jagged shapes of rocks and trees, the waterfall produces a horizontal backdrop for the frieze of stranded survivors in the foreground, uncertain of their impending doom.^[12] Poussin ominously places a snake slithering across the rock on the left of the picture, a symbol often employed in his pictures to conjure up a sense of horror. Additionally, the presence of a snake plays a special iconographic role in the cycle, because it also serves as a reminder of the singular absence of a serpent in the Garden of Eden.^[6][13]

Nicolas Poussin is regarded by many historians of art as one of the most influential figures in French landscape painting.^[15]In his paintings he looked for a harmony between vertical and horizontal elements, sometimes resorting to mathematical devices such as thegolden ratio. In landscape painting, in which the elements are mostly horizontal, he introduced classical architecture to make the Pythagoreanright angles so essential to his methods, much studied later by commentators and artists alike. When Poussin'sSeasons were first exhibited, they were immediately discussed by French academicians, connoisseurs and artists, includingCharles le Brun,Sébastien Bourdon,Loménie de Brienne and Michel Passart, a patron of bothClaude and Poussin. As Brienne reported at the time:

"We met at the Duke of Richelieu's where most of the inquiring minds in Paris could be found. There was a long and erudite discussion. I also spoke and declared myself for theDeluge. Passat felt the same way. LeBrun, who hardly rated eitherSpring orAutumn, gave a long eulogy onSummer. But Bourdon held out for theEarthly Paradise and on this he would not budge."^[16]

Unlike other artists who spawned slavish imitators, Poussin's influence seems to have been wholly positive.^[18] Other artists understood his balance between ideal and reality. His influence can be seen in the work of French landscape painters such asBourdon,Gaspard Dughet,Millet,Corot,Pissarro andCézanne. Although the criticWilliam Hazlitt recognized Poussin as a great painter, the English school largely preferred the gently poetic landscapes of Claude to the intellectual rigor of Poussin.Turner, although influenced byThe Deluge, had strong reservations;Constable was one of the few to learn from Poussin, whose paintings he liked to copy.^[19]

The single painting from theSeasons which has been most discussed over the years is probablyWinter orThe Deluge.^[11]Although Poussin is primarily regarded as one of the greatest classicist painters, hisDeluge created for him a unique position in the history of romantic painting. TheDeluge was the prototype and inspiration for a large number of nineteenth-century deluges and tempests. It became known as one of the first masterpieces of the "horrific sublime" and acquired unique importance in theLouvre for romantic landscape painters. Almost all French critics and historians of art commented on it, many hailing it as the greatest painting of all time. In EnglandHazlitt described it as "perhaps the finest historical landscape in the world" andConstable considered it "alone in the world".^[20]

Very soon after it was first exhibited, theAcadémie Royale exceptionally devoted a shortconférence to it in 1668, with an unprecedented five subsequent discussions between 1694 and 1736, indicating the unique impression it had made in France. These early appraisals recognized the daring originality of the picture, giving it a special place of honor amongst Poussin's oeuvre. While recognizing the harmony of the picture and its economical monochromatism, the academicians nevertheless felt that the inherent greyness of the subject matter did not give scope forObjets agréables.^[20]

In 1750 theDeluge was included in an exhibition of the paintings ofLouis XV in theLuxembourg Palace. At the time its popularity with the public eclipsed theMarie de' Medici cycle ofRubens, on display for the first time; this included well-known visitors such asCharles-Antoine Coypel, James Barry, andHorace Walpole, who in particular singled out theDeluge as "worth going to see alone" and "the first picture of its kind in the world". It was, however, the commentary of the Abbé Louis Gougenot at the time that captured the four aspects of the painting that would be the main points of all future discussion:^[21]

• Economy of means. One significant feature that distinguished theDeluge from the Deluges ofRaphael andMichelangelo was the small number of figures in the painting – eleven including a horse. Several writers including Coypel andDiderot thought there were even fewer. Poussin was perceived to have deliberately chosen to depict"le moment solennel où la race humaine va disparaître". Early critics, includingChateaubriand, regarded this essay in horror and pathos as Poussin'sswansong. Later the historical painterPierre-Nolasque Bergeret included it symbolically in his depiction of Poussin's death. Critics also noted Poussin's understatement: according toDiderot andde Clarac, the calmness of the picture only intensified the horror. Constable, who picked out theDeluge as one of the four paintings marking "the memorable points in the history of landscape", considered that this calmness showed Poussin's faithfulness to the original biblical text, which only mentions rain; for him Poussin had eschewed all violent and dramatic effects, thereby deepening the interest in those few figures present.^[23]
• Richness of interest. Although lacking in principal figures, theDeluge was considered to evoke in the observer all the ideas connected with a disaster – destruction, desolation, fear, horror and melancholy. Critics singled out the old man clinging to a plank, the pathos of the family group desperately trying to rescue their child and, most sinister of all, the serpent gliding over the rocks on the right.Rousseau was among those whose imagination was haunted by the serpent, the precursor of evil. The nightmarish image of the serpent –l'esprit tentateur qui corrompit le premier homme, et qui s'applaudit encore du nouveau désastre don't il est l'auteur – became one of the most copied motifs of Poussin.^[24]
• Sublimity of conception. For many critics, Poussin's boldness in daring to break all the usual rules of painting showed that he was attempting to speak the unspeakable; that he was willing "to hurl himself into the depths to make tangible an inaccessible truth." With this recognition of visionary recklessness, considered by some to contradict his usual rational methods, came also an appreciation of the ineffable sublimity of theDeluge, both for its terror and its simplicity. Like others before him, Shelley was transfixed by the painting, which he found "terribly impressive". Many commentators have ascribed the visceral and overwhelming reaction created by theDeluge, so hard to translate into words, to Poussin's genius in evoking the sublime.^[25]
• Appropriateness of colour. Already in the seventeenth century, academicians had praised theDeluge for its "universal colour". In 1750 the Abbé Gougenot had similarly referred to the appropriateness of grey as a colour. It was Coypel, however, who understood that it was a colour designed to evoke a mood of melancholy. Later this was understood to be a supreme example of Poussin's theory of modes. This ran contrary to the usual academic theories demanding vivid contrasts in a work of art. On the contrary as the English criticJohn Opie pointed out in 1809, the colourlessness of theDeluge was one of the main factors for the "pathetic solemnity, grandeur and simplicity of its effect". Poussin's use of colour did not please all, notably the English criticJohn Ruskin, who found the treatment of the theme undramatic and unnaturalistic. Much later at the turn of the twentieth century the French art historianPaul Desjardins, one of the greatest scholars of Poussin, interpreted theDeluge not as an evocation of rain or flooding but of doom and despair. Rather than realism, he saw the whole painting as an expression of a human state, a prayer uttered into the void never to be answered. With this interpretation, the greyness of the picture became moving in itself, the symbol for a lost soul. Moreover, the cycle of four paintings could then be seen to have a unity as four moods or musical modes, reflected in the different colourings of the paintings: lush greens forSpring; golden yellows forSummer; fading browns forAutumn; and ashen grey forWinter.^[26]

TheDeluge inspired many similar paintings by later artists. It was widely distributed as an engraving and numerous artists made copies of the original, includingPeyron,Géricault,Etty,Danby andDegas. Apocalyptic paintings became popular in France in the second half of the eighteenth century and the Deluge was a theme for thePrix de Rome in sculpture in 1780. Many of the subsequent monumental Deluges owe some kind of debt to Poussin's understated original. These include works byGéricault,Regnault andGirodet. Across the channel the first major painter to produce an English Deluge wasTurner. Seeing the original in 1802 marked a turning point in his career. Fascinated by the picture, particularly its "sublime" colour, he was nevertheless critical of its composition and found it too restrained and undramatic. His own reworking is more dramatic, but, along with other later variations on the same theme, still owes much to Poussin's original. Later English deluges byJohn Martin andFrancis Danby were less influenced by the original in theLouvre and were often a conscious reaction to its understatement and calmness. LaterRuskin dismissed Poussin'sDeluge, directing his readers instead to Turner's version, with no mention of Turner's indebtedness to Poussin.^[27]Since the beginning of the twentieth century theDeluge has remained popular, still retaining its modernity as a piece of universal, even abstract, art. AsVerdi (1981) has wryly commented, it is the only painting by Poussin which "would retain much of its attraction for the lover of modern art even if it were inadvertently hung upside down".

Admirable tremblement du temps, film byAlain Jaubert fromPalettes series (1991).

• List of paintings by Nicolas Poussin

• Baer, Curtis O. (1963), "An Essay on Poussin",The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism,21 (3), Blackwell Publishing:251–261,doi:10.2307/427435,JSTOR 427435
• Bätschmann, Oskar (1999),Nicolas Poussin: Dialectics of Painting, Reaktion Books,ISBN 0-948462-43-4
• Blunt, Anthony (1967),Nicolas Poussin, Pallas Athene,ISBN 1-873429-64-9, Chapter XII The Last Synthesis:The Four Seasons and theApollo and Daphne
• Carrier, David (1993),Poussin's paintings: a study in art-historical methodology, Penn State Press,ISBN 0-271-00816-4
• Clark, Kenneth (1961),Landscape into art, Beacon Press
• Désveaux, Emmanuel (1998), "La femme et la race d'après Poussin ou la puissance du quadrant",L'Homme,38 (147):191–201,doi:10.3406/hom.1998.370513
• Doran, P. Michael (2001),Conversations with Cézanne, University of California Press,ISBN 0-520-22519-8
• Haggard, Patrick; Rodgers, Sam (2000),"The movement disorder of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)",Movement Disorders,15 (2):328–334,doi:10.1002/1531-8257(200003)15:2<328::AID-MDS1021>3.0.CO;2-Y,PMID 10752587,S2CID 43216258, archived fromthe original on 2013-01-05
• McTighe, Sheila (1996),Nicolas Poussin's Landscape Allegories, Cambridge University Press,ISBN 0-521-48214-3
• Mérot, Alain (1990),Nicolas Poussin, Abbeville Press,ISBN 1-55859-120-6
• Harris, Ann Sutherland (2005),Seventeenth-century art and architecture, Laurence King Publishing,ISBN 1-85669-415-1
• Scott, Katie; Warwick, Genevieve (1998),Commemorating Poussin: Reception and Interpretation of the Artist, Cambridge University Press,ISBN 0-521-64004-0
• Sohm, Philip Lindsay (2007),The artist grows old: the aging of art and artists in Italy, 1500-1800, Yale University Press,ISBN 978-0-300-12123-0, Chapter 3. Poussin's hands and Titian's eyes
• Verdi, Richard (1981), "Poussin's 'Deluge': The Aftermath",The Burlington Magazine,123 (940):389–401,JSTOR 880394
• Verdi, Richard;Rosenberg, Pierre (1995),Nicolas Poussin 1584-1665,Royal Academy,ISBN 0-302-00656-7

• Atlas catalogue, Room 16 in theLouvre

• Paintings by Nicolas Poussin
• Paintings in the Louvre by French artists
• 1660s paintings
• Paintings of Adam and Eve
• Works about seasons
• Snakes in art
• Maritime paintings
• Moon in art

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata