''Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion'' is a 1648 painting, also known as ''Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion (Collected by His Widow)'' and ''The Ashes of Phocion Collected by his Widow'', by French artist

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

. Phocion was an

Athenian Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

statesman from the 4th century BC. "It is a picture about exile. Phocion, an Athenian general, was falsely condemned and executed, and his unburied corpse banished, and taken to the outskirts of

Megara Megara (; el, Μέγαρα, ) is a historic town and a municipality in West Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis Island, Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, befo ...

where it was burnt. At the very front his faithful widow gathers up his ashes. Her servant keeps look out. And the outcasts are placed directly below the mighty nucleus of temple-rock-cloud. But nothing in the scene indicates that the civilisation from which they're excluded is itself evil, corrupt or doomed, that they're well out of it. No, their exile from the good life is sheer tragedy. The majestic symphony of the city continues undiminished." The painting is housed at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

, part of the National Museums Liverpool,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The same year Poussin painted a companion piece to ''Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion'', ''

The Funeral of Phocion ''The Funeral of Phocion'' is a 1648 landscape painting, also known as ''The Burial of Phocion'', ''Landscape with the Funeral of Phocion'' and ''Landscape with the Body of Phocion Carried out of Athens'', by the French artist Nicolas Poussin. Ph ...

'', in three versions. Another version of this painting is in the

Holburne Museum The Holburne Museum (formerly known as the Holburne of Menstrie Museum and the Holburne Museum of Art) is located in Sydney Pleasure Gardens, Bath, Somerset, England. The city's first public art gallery, the Grade I listed building, is home to ...

.The Ashes of Phocion Collected by His Widow
in the Holburne Museum on

Art UK Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...

References

External links

Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool page on the painting

1648 paintings Paintings by Nicolas Poussin Paintings in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery Landscape paintings {{17C-painting-stub