id: 150389 accession number: 1981.18 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.18 updated: 2025-08-07 23:36:42.493000 The Holy Family on the Steps, 1648. Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665). Oil on canvas; framed: 103.5 x 135.3 x 13.3 cm (40 3/4 x 53 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.); unframed: 73.3 x 105.8 cm (28 7/8 x 41 5/8 in.); former: 72.3 x 104 cm (28 7/16 x 40 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1981.18 title: The Holy Family on the Steps title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1648 creation date earliest: 1648 creation date latest: 1648 current location: 212 Baroque Painting and Sculpture creditline: Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 17th century technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - French 17th Century type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665) - artist --- measurements: Framed: 103.5 x 135.3 x 13.3 cm (40 3/4 x 53 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.); Unframed: 73.3 x 105.8 cm (28 7/8 x 41 5/8 in.); Former: 72.3 x 104 cm (28 7/16 x 40 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1981 opening date: 1982-02-17T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). title: A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps opening date: 1999-11-14T00:00:00 A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 14, 1999-January 23, 2000). title: long-term loan opening date: 2000-02-01T00:00:00 long-term loan. Musée du Louvre (organizer) (February 1, 2000-January 31, 2002). title: Poussin and 17th century French Painting opening date: 2002-02-11T00:00:00 Poussin and 17th century French Painting. Harvard University Art Museums/Fogg Art Museum (February 11-April 14, 2002). title: Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-11-08T00:00:00 Masterpieces of European Painting from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Frick Collection, New York, NY (organizer) (November 8, 2006-January 28, 2007). title: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2007-03-29T00:00:00 Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, OH (March 29-July 8, 2007). title: Poussin and God opening date: 2015-03-30T00:00:00 Poussin and God. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (March 30-June 29, 2015). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': "A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's Holy Family on the Steps. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November, 14, 1999-January 23, 2000).", 'opening_date': '2000-01-23T00:00:00'} * {'description': '.', 'opening_date': None} --- PROVENANCE Painted for Pierre Hennequin de Fresne (or version in Washington); [perhaps Reynière coll., Paris sale 1793; London sales 1797, 1801]; Lord Ashburton; J. Hervig-Smith, Devon (London sale 1908); (Quinto, Paris); Henri Lerolle (Paris sale 1944, as attributed); Bertin-Mourot coll. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, “Poussin Painting Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art,” April 30, 1981, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/cmapr2876 Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1981.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 2 (February 1982): 39–82. page number: Reproduced: P. 60-61; Mentioned: P. 78, no. 21 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159758 Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “A Pastoral Scene with Classical Figures by Claude Lorrain.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 4 (April 1983): 164–71. page number: url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159813 Blunt, Anthony. Nicolas Poussin. London: Pallas Athene, 1995. page number: Mentioned: p. 659 url: Cornette, Joël, and Alain Mérot. Le XVIIe siècle. Paris, France: Seuil, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 337 url: Perry, Gillian, and Colin Cunningham. Academies, Museums, and Canons of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Open University, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 38, pl. 16 url: Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque & Rococo: Art & Culture. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 187, no. 5.24 url: De Grazia, Diane. “Poussin’s ‘Holy Family on the Steps’ in Context.” Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 4 (1999): 26–63. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 26-63 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20070825 Sawyer, Carol, and Marcia Steele. “Poussin’s ‘Holy Family on the Steps’: New Technical Discoveries, Comparisons, and the Washington Copy.” Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 4 (1999): 112–160. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 112-160 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20070829 De Grazia, Dianne, "Poussin’s Holy Family", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 39 no. 10, December 1999 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1999-10/page/n3 Bonfait, Olivier, and Neil MacGregor. Il Dio nascosto: i grandi maestri del Seicento e l'immagine di Dio. Roma, Italy: Edizioni de Luca, 2000. page number: Reproduced: p. 16, fig. 1 url: Armstrong, John. The Intimate Philosophy of Art. London, United Kingdom: Allen Lane, 2000. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 108-109, no. 23 url: Kendall, Richard. Drawn to Painting: Leon Kossoff Drawings and Prints After Nicolas Poussin. London, United Kingdom: Merrell Publishers, 2000. page number: Reproduced: p. 117, pl. 58 url: May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Reproduced: p. 40, no. 37; Mentioned: p. 117 url: Wilson, Carolyn C. St. Joseph in Italian Renaissance Society and Art: New Directions and Interpretations. Philadelphia, PA: Saint Joseph's University Press, 2001. page number: Reproduced: p. 145, pl. 50, XI url: Rosenberg, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Caillet. La peinture française. Paris, France: Mengès, 2001. page number: Reproduced: p. 274 url: Bishop, Philip E. Adventures in the Human Spirit. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 2002. page number: Reproduced: p. 282, fig. 10.28 url: Brugerolles, Emmanuelle and David Guillet. Poussin, Claude, and Their World: Seventeenth-Century French Drawings from the École Des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Paris, France: École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, 2002. page number: Reproduced: fig. 4 url: Marshall, David Ryley. The Italians in Australia: Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art. Firenze, Italy: Centro Di, 2004. page number: Reproduced: p. 22, fig. 10 url: Hyman, John. Realism and Relativism in the Theory of Art. Oxford, United Kingdom: Aristotelian Society, 2005. page number: Reproduced: fir. 4 url: Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. London, United Kingdom: Laurence King, 2005. page number: Reproduced: p. 586, fig. 13.26 url: Shepherd, Rupert, and Robert Maniura. Presence: The Inherence of the Prototype Within Images and Other Objects. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 131, fig. 7.1 url: Iacono, Margaret. Masterpieces of European Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: The Frick Collection, 2006. page number: Mentioned: p. 60-63; Reproduced: no. 12 url: Eitel-Porter, Rhoda. From Leonardo to Pollock: Master Drawings from the Morgan Library. New York, NY: Pierpont Morgan Library, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 150, fig. 1 url: Hyman, John. The Objective Eye: Color, Form, and Reality in the Theory of Art. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 193, fig. 69 url: Wright, Christopher. Poussin: Paintings : a Catalogue Raisonné. London, United Kingdom: Chaucer Press, 2007. page number: Reproduced: p. 192, no. 140 url: Conisbee, Philip, Richard Rand, and Joseph Baillio. French Paintings of the Fifteenth Through the Eighteenth Century. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 2009. page number: Reproduced: p. 390, fig. 1 url: Hershkovitch, Corinne, and Didier Rykner. La restitution des œuvres d'art: solutions et impasses. Paris, France: Hazan, 2011. page number: Mentioned: p. 136; Reproduced: p. 218, fig. 13 url: Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. London, United Kingdom; Scala Books, 2012. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 200-2001 url: Blanc, Marianne Cojannot-Le. À la recherche du rameau d'or. [Place of publication not identified]: Presses universitaires de Paris Ouest, 2012. page number: Reproduced: p. 125, fig. 31 url: . Brugerolles, Emmanuelle. De Poussin à Fragonard: hommage à Mathias Polakovits. Paris, France: Beaux-arts de Paris, 2013. page number: Reproduced: p. 57, fig. 3 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 187 url: Cuzin, Jean-Pierre, et. al. Le Saint Joseph charpentier de Georges de la Tour: Un Don au Louvre de Percy Moore Turner. [Gent] : Snoeck, 2017. page number: Mentioned;. p. 179 & 477, n. 2053 url: Bandle, Anne Laure, and Frédéric Elsig. Risques et périls dans l'attribution des œuvres d'art: de la pratique des experts aux aspects juridiques. Genève : Schulthess, 2018. page number: Mentioned: pp. 2-3; Reproduced: p. 5, fig. 2 url: Gauzi, Christine. "Poussin au Louvre: L'Etat de Grace." L'Estampille/L'Objet d'art 512 (Mai 2015): 36-45. page number: Reproduced: p. 36 url: Brilliant, Virginia. Italian, Spanish, and French Paintings in the Ringling Museum of Art. New York; Sarasota, FL: Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., in association with The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art,, 2017. page number: Mentioned: p. 449 url: Bishop, Brian Leslie and David Hoyle. The Continuing Dialogue: An Investigation into the Artistic Afterlife of the Five Narratives Peculiar to the Fourth Gospel and an Assessment of their Contribution to the Hermeneutics of that Gospel. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2017. page number: Reproduced: p. 104, fig. 27 url: Sapir, Itay. "Flowing Wine, solid Stone: Dionysian and Apollonian Metaphors in Writing on Seventeenth-Century Art." In Einfluss, Strömung, Quelle: Aquatische Metaphern der Kunstgeschichte.Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018. page number: Reproduced: p. 201, fig. 1 url: Pierini, Marco, and Perugino. Perugino: l'Adorazione dei Magi. 2018. page number: Reproduced and mentioned; p. 44, Fig. 4 url: Burchard, Wolf. The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV. London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2016. p. 230 page number: Reproduced: p. 230, fig. 190 url: Gady, Bénédicte, and Nicolas Milovanovic. Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). Lens: Musée du Louvre-Lens; Paris: LIENART, 2016. page number: Reproduced: P. 186, fig. 1 url: Milovanovic, Nicolas and Mickaël Szanto. Poussin et Dieu: l'album de l'exposition. Paris: Hazan: Musée du Louvre, 2015. page number: Reproduced: P. 14-15 url: Buser, Thomas. Experiencing Art Around Us. Australia ; United States : Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. page number: Reproduced and mentioned: p, 103, figure 4-26 url: Hall, Marcia B. The Power of Color: Five Centuries of European Painting. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019. page number: Reproduced: p. 132, fig. 3.26 url: Wilson, Carolyn C."Nunc faber alter adest: Cristoforo Bianchi's Emblematic Engraving from 1597 and the Saint Joseph Altarpiece of 1603 by Giovanni Barbiani of Ravenna." Artibus et historiae 80, (2019): 241-268. page number: Reproduced: p. 252-53, fig.13a-b; Mentioned: p. 253-54 url: Verdi, Richard, and Nicolas Poussin. Poussin As a Painter: From Classicism to Abstraction. London : Reaktion Books, 2020. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 120-123, no. 103 url: Thomas, Troy M. Poussin's Women: Sex and Gender in the Artist's Works. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2020. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 327-328, fig. 7.14 url: Albl, Stefan, and Pietro Testa. Pietro Testa: Maler in Rom und Lucca (1612-1650). 2021. page number: Mentioned: p. 117, note 180 url: Caglioti, Francesco, and Donatello. Donatello: The Renaissance. Venezia : Marsilio arte, 2022. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 401, fig. 6 url: Lerolle, Aggy. Henry Lerolle: Paris 1848-1929. Willaupuis, Belgium: Wapica; Paris: Société des Amis d'Henry Lerolle, 2022. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 222-223 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1981.18/1981.18_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1981.18/1981.18_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1981.18/1981.18_full.tif