Description of the picture:
Four Seasons. Autumn – Nicolas Poussin. 1660-1664. Canvas, oil. 118×160
A series of landscapes “The Seasons” of the famous representative of the classicism style in France of the 17th century, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) includes plot compositions on the themes of the Old Testament events of the history of mankind, which the artist associates with the seasons on the principle of generation, growing up, aging and death.
The work is a kind of illustration of the history of Genesis. It depicts an evening mountainous landscape, which, according to the idea of Poussin, should represent the land of Canaan, famous for its fertility. Under a dark cloudy sky, workers are completing the harvest. In the foreground, paintings by Abraham and Lot carry a huge bunch of grapes. So the artist wanted to tell the audience about the comfortable and well-fed existence of people without God. What ends an unrighteous life, he showed in the last canvas of the cycle."