# Landscape with Saint John on Patmos

**Nicolas Poussin** (French, 1594–1665)  
1640  
Oil on canvas  
100.3 × 136.4 cm (39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.); Framed: 128.3 × 164.5 × 12.1 cm (50 1/2 × 64 3/4 × 4 3/4 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1930.500. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/5848).

## About this work

Saint John the Evangelist, robed in red and yellow, sits with his book among the ruins of classical buildings on the island of Patmos, where he received the visions of the Book of Revelation, and an ordered landscape stretches away under a calm sky. Poussin painted the picture in Rome in 1640, together with a companion showing Saint Matthew, now in Berlin, possibly as part of a planned series of the four evangelists. The broken columns and fallen stones suggest the pagan world giving way to the Christian, set within a landscape built with the clarity of a geometric proof.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Nicolas Poussin painted this in 1640, aged 46. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

Painting of Greek landscape, classical architecture, yellow, red robed man reading.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Nicolas Poussin](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/nicolas-poussin)

French, 1594–1665; born in Les Andelys; died in Rome

Poussin left Normandy for Paris and in 1624 settled in Rome, where he spent almost all his career. After an early public commission for St Peter’s, he worked mainly for private collectors on easel paintings of classical, biblical and mythological subjects, ordered with rigorous clarity and reasoned gesture. A brief, unhappy spell as court painter in Paris in 1640–42 confirmed his preference for Rome. His later landscapes give nature a calm, architectural order, and his example became the touchstone of the French Academy.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: France
- The artist was 46
- Real size: about 39 × 54 in (100 × 136 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 30 × 40 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 17th century
- Subjects: landscapes, saints, religion, Century of Progress, world's fairs, Chicago World's Fairs, trees, oblisks
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/11.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/11/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/landscape-with-saint-john-on-patmos-aic-5848).