The Abduction of the Sabine Women

Poussin painted this Abduction of the Sabine Women probably in 1633 or 1634, in Rome. He was about 40, working for Roman and French patrons, and he was developing the style of classical history painting that would influence French art for the next two centuries. The painting shows the episode from Roman legend in which the early Romans, short of women, abducted the daughters of the neighboring Sabine tribe during a festival. Romulus stands on a platform at the left, his red cloak billowing, raising his arm to signal the abduction. Below him, Roman men seize Sabine women, dragging them away from their families. The composition is a carefully staged chaos: figures run, fall, reach, and struggle across the foreground, arranged in interlocking groups that build from left to right. The architecture behind them is Roman, a classical temple with columns and pediments. Poussin was born in Normandy in 1594 and moved to Rome in 1624, where he spent most of his career. He was the opposite of a Baroque painter like Bernini: where Bernini worked in swirling motion and dramatic emotion, Poussin worked in measured composition and controlled gesture. He believed that painting should appeal to the mind, not the senses, and he organized his compositions according to strict principles of geometry and narrative clarity. Every figure in this painting has a specific role in the story, and every gesture is legible from a distance. The painting is large, 61 by 83 inches, and it was probably commissioned by a Roman collector, possibly by Marshal Charles de Créquy, the French ambassador to Rome. Poussin painted at least two other versions of the Abduction of the Sabine Women, one now in the Louvre and one in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. The Met version is the finest of the three, with the most complex composition and the most carefully painted figures. Oil on canvas, 155 by 210 centimeters. Poussin painted with a smooth, controlled surface, building the figures in thin layers of color over a careful underdrawing. The flesh tones are cool and even, the draperies crisp and sharply folded. The architecture is rendered in precise one-point perspective, with the vanishing point at the center of the temple facade behind Romulus. The horizontal format and classical subject make this print work well in a living room or dining room with traditional furniture. The warm palette of reds, browns, and cream pairs with dark wood and warm walls. A gold frame is traditional for Poussin. The 18x24 size gives the figures and the architecture enough room to read. The painting came to the Met as a gift from Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham in 1946. This is a public domain artwork (CC0), scanned from the original at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.