Poussin’s Humour

by Tony Green

Tony Green, the Author

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Art History

Nicolas Poussin

This book hopes it will pose some critical questions of method for the study of the arts. These essays reveal a Nicolas Poussin that has rarely been noticed before. Is that because he has been so honoured as a great classical master – serious painter of serious histories and neo-stoic philosopher – that almost nobody has noticed his humour, or wit? Yet everyone knows his letters to his friend Paul de Chantelou are full of puns. It should not be a surprise that some of his pictures, as this book shows, are endowed with a subtle painterly wit. Both investigations of subject matter and formal analyses have missed it, and art history, has until now been blind to it. What can be done about this?

These essays consist of accumulated observations and thoughts. Many of them will sound familiar to University of Auckland students, because they began as the material of Professor Tony Green’s seminars, from 1969 to 1998. He gratefully acknowledges that without the participation and lively interest of students, this short and not particularly humorous book would not have been written.

“Distinctive in its aims, scrupulous in its method, Poussin’s Humour is a highly nuanced account of how Poussin actually painted. Tony Green’s achievement is to locate Poussin’s thought within his painting practice itself, convincingly demonstrating that the medium of art is truly the message, not its poor servant. Full of thought-provoking insights, and shot through with forensic wit, Poussin’s Humour should be read by anybody interested in this most elusive of artists.”

Dr David Packwood, University of Warwick.  

Classical Master

“Poussin’s humour?’ – ‘Yes’ –  ‘Ha ha. That will be a short book.”

(Conversation between the author and a publisher, 1993)

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