Seven Sacraments (Poussin)

Two series of paintings by Nicolas Poussin

Ordination from the first series

The Seven Sacraments refers to two series of paintings of the seven sacraments by the French painter Nicolas Poussin.

## First series

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Ordination from the second series

Painted between 1637 and 1640, the first series was commissioned by Cassiano dal Pozzo in the second half of the 1630s and was sold to the Dukes of Rutland in 1784.[1] One of the seven, Penance, was destroyed in a fire at the Rutlands' Belvoir Castle in 1816, and Baptism was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in 1939, where it still resides. The remaining five were still at Belvoir Castle at the time when Anthony Blunt wrote his catalogue in 1966, and then were on loan to the National Gallery in London until November 2010, when all five of these paintings were taken off show prior to the attempted sale of Ordination on 8 December that year.[2] Ordination was ultimately purchased by the Kimbell Art Museum for US$24.3 million and was displayed for the first time there on September 14, 2011.[3] In 2013 the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge purchased Extreme Unction. In January 2023, an export licence was issued for Confirmation, which was sold abroad. In 2024 the National Gallery in London acquired Eucharist. Marriage remains in the collection of the Trustees of the Duke of Rutland’s 2000 Settlement, and is currently on loan to the National Gallery in London [4]

The images linked to below are of the remaining six paintings of the first series, and an engraving of the lost painting Penance:

1. Baptism (image)
2. Confirmation (image)
3. Eucharist (image)
4. Penance (image)
5. Extreme Unction (image)
6. Ordination (image)
7. Marriage (image)

## Second series

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The second series was painted for Paul Fréart de Chantelou from 1644 to 1648 and was acquired by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater in 1798. The paintings passed by descent to the Earls of Ellesmere, the last of whom became the Duke of Sutherland in 1964. All seven paintings of the second series have since 1945 been on loan to the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh as part of the Bridgewater Loan.[5]

The images linked to below are of the seven paintings of the second series:

1. Baptism (image)
2. Confirmation (image)
3. Eucharist (image)
4. Penance (image)
5. Extreme Unction (image)
6. Marriage (image)
7. Ordination (image)

## See also

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* List of paintings by Nicolas Poussin

## References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Seven Sacraments by Nicolas Poussin.

1. ^ "RELEASE: POUSSIN'S ORDINATION". www.christies.com. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
2. ^ "Poussin masterpiece fails to sell". BBC News. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
3. ^ Poussin masterpiece from the celebrated 'Sacraments' series acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum[permanent dead link]
4. ^ The National Gallery acquires Poussin’s 'Eucharist' showing the Last Supper from his first cycle of pictures of the seven sacraments
5. ^ Blunt, Anthony (1966). The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: A Critical Catalogue. London: Phaidon. OCLC 349831

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Nicolas Poussin

List of paintings

Paintings|

* The Death of Chione (1622)
* The Battle between the Israelites and the Amorites (c. 1625)
* Joshua's Battle against the Amalekites (c. 1625)
* Venus and Adonis (1626)
* The Capture of Jerusalem by Titus (1626; 1635)
* The Death of Germanicus (1627)
* Venus Weeping for Adonis (c. 1626-1627)
* Saint Cecilia (1627–1628)
* Echo and Narcissus (1627–1628)
* The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus (1628–1629)
* The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (1628–1629)
* Plague of Ashdod (1628–1630)
* Cephalus and Aurora (c. 1629–1630)
* The Inspiration of the Poet (1629–1630)
* Sleeping Venus with Cupid (1628–1630)
* Saint James the Great's Vision of the Virgin Mary (c. 1629–1630)
* The Massacre of the Innocents (1625–1632)
* Parnassus (c. 1631–1633)
* A Bacchanalian Revel Before a Term (1632–1633)
* The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633–1634)
* Adoration of the Shepherds (1633–1634)
* The Crossing of the Red Sea (1633–1634)
* The Rape of the Sabine Women (1634–1635, 1637–1638)
* A Dance to the Music of Time (1634–1636)
* Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite (c. 1636)
* Camillus Handing the Falerian Schoolmaster over to his Pupils (1637)
* Et in Arcadia ego (1637–38)
* Theseus Rediscovering His Father's Sword (1638)
* The Manna (1638–1639)
* Extreme Unction (1638–1640)
* The Continence of Scipio (1640)
* Landscape with Saint John on Patmos (1640)
* The Funeral of Phocion (1648)
* Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion (1648)
* Eliezer and Rebecca (1648–1649)
* The Judgement of Solomon (1649)
* Landscape with Polyphemus (1649)
* Self-Portrait (1649)
* Landscape with Three Figures (1645–1650)
* Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice (1650–1653)
* The Flight into Egypt (1657–1658)
* Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun (1658)
* Landscape with Two Nymphs (1659)
* Landscape with Hercules and Cacus (c. 1660)
* Eliezer and Rebecca (1660-1665)
* Apollo and Daphne (1661–1664)

Painting series|

* Seven Sacraments (first series 1637–1640; second series 1644–1648)
* The Four Seasons (1660–1664)

Museums|

* Musée Nicolas Poussin

Related|

* Poussinists and Rubenists

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data

Other|

* IdRef

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