jo Study for the Triumph of
Neptune and Amphitrite
Pen and brown ink; H: 14.6 cm (5^3 / 4 in.); W: 20.6 cm (8 Vs
in.)
86.GA.470
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom right,
collection mark of Nathaniel Hone (L. 2793); (verso)
fragment of a letter in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Nathaniel Hone, London; Anthony
Blunt, London; art market, Zurich; art market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: The Sir Anthony Blunt Collection, Cour-
tauld Institute of Art, London, 1964, no. 56.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Friedlànder and A. Blunt, The
Drawings of Nicolas Poussin (London, 1953), vol. 3, p. 34,
no. 213; D. Wild, Nicolas Poussin: Katalogder Werke (Zu-
rich, 1980), vol. 2, p. 66, under no. 66.
THIS RAPID SKETCH WAS IDENTIFIED BY FRIEDLÀNDER
and Blunt (1953) as a study for Poussin's Triumph of Nep-
tune and Amphitrite (Philadelphia Museum of Art), which
he painted for Cardinal Richelieu in the mid-to-late- The two seated nymphs and the triton with a flut-
tering piece of drapery recur in the painting. The stand-
ing female figure at the left seems closer to studies of Ve-
nus, as in Poussins drawing of her landing on Cythera
in the Musée Bonnat, Bayonne (inv. 1668). It has been
suggested (ibid.) that the Cupid at the right was made in
preparation for the one in the center foreground of the
Philadelphia picture, but he might equally be connected
with one of the flying putti above Amphitrite who
shoots an arrow and faces in the same direction as the fig-
ure in the Museum's drawing.
170 FRENCH SCHOOL • POUSSIN