Leon Kossoff created his etching in response to The Holy Family on the Steps, 1648 by Nicolas Poussin, owned by the Cleveland Museum of Art. When included in the 1996 Poussin exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, Kossoff incised a zinc plate while working directly in front of the painting.

The composition depicts Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, with Elizabeth and John the Baptist. A consequence of the printing process, Kossoff’s etching is a reverse of the Poussin. Kossoff had no intention to copy the old master, rather to find points of intersection, his draughtsmanship providing a means to “move about in its imaginative spaces” (Kendall, Richard. Leon Kossoff Drawings and Prints after Poussin, London: Merrell, 2000. Print).

In 2000, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized two concurrent exhibitions surrounding Kossoff’s drawings and etchings made after Poussin. In a rare interview, Kossoff talked to the Los Angeles Times about the process of making these works: 

“I just planned to get as close as possible to the paintings, through drawing. I feel I’m experiencing the paintings in a down-to-earth way that makes [them] real for me. [And] they keep my own drawing on the move. You’ve got no chance to change your mind with the etching, while drawing is endlessly restating. Plus, with etching, you can’t really see what you are doing very clearly, it’s all intuition.”

IMAGES: (top) Leon Kossoff (British, 1926-), The Holy Family on the Steps, 1998, etching, plate: 15 15/16 x 23 7/16 in. (40.5 x 59.5 cm), paper: 22 3/16 x 29 13/16 in. (56.4 x 75.7 cm), Edition of 20

(bottom) Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594-1665), The Holy Family on the Steps, 1648, oil on canvas, framed: 103.5 x 135.3 x 13.3 cm (40 11/16 x 53 ¼ x 5 3/16 in.), unframed: 73.3 x 105.8 cm (28 13/16 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