The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced it has received a gift from Jon and Barbara Landau of an exceptional painting by Nicolas Poussin (15941665), a French artist who changed the course of European painting and set the terms for subsequent generations of artists. Agony in the Garden, created between 162627, is one of only two unanimously accepted works by Poussin executed in oil-on-copper rather than on canvas, which he used more typically. This important addition to the Department of European Paintings brings The Mets holdings of paintings by Poussin to seven, making it the largest and most comprehensive collection of the artists work outside Europe. We are thrilled to add this remarkable painting to The Mets collection, said Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Poussin has always been part of the museums history, his Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus was purchased as part of The Mets founding collection in 1871, and this latest addition further cements the museums position as a leader in presenting works by the great classical French painter. It takes passionate connoisseurs like Jon and Barbara Landau to acquire such a momentous work, and we cannot thank them enough for their incredible generosity in gifting this masterpiece to The Met and sharing this important painting forever with the public. This ambitious work, having belonged to one of the most important Roman collectors of the 17th century, has been prized from the moment it was painted. This gift gives The Met the only Poussin on copper in a museum collection. We look forward to studying this rare painting further and to sharing it with The Mets visitors, thanks to the tremendous generosity of Jon and Barbara Landau, added Stephan Wolohojian, John Pope-Hennessy curator in charge of the Department of European Paintings. We have lived with Nicholas Poussins Agony in the Garden for the last 22 years, where it has been a glorious daily presence. When it came time to find a new home, our only thought was The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we learned so much about the art we love. Were thrilled that, although it is no longer ours, the work has been placed in such a perfect location and that as part of the museum-going public, we will always be able to enjoy it, commented Jon and Barbara Landau. Poussin executed Agony in the Garden at a pivotal moment just after arriving in Rome, when he had not yet attained a firm footing in the citys art world. It would soon enter the collection of Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, the brother of the antiquarian-connoisseur Cassiano dal Pozzo, who would become Poussins greatest Roman patron. A Latin inscription written across the back of the work is consistent with the way in which the Dal Pozzo collection was inventoried. The painting had been known through inventories and references by the most illustrious visitors to Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries, but was lost until 1985, when its rediscovery was heralded as a major addition to Poussins corpus. In this intimately scaled, jewel-like painting, a zig-zag composition unites two scenes: Christ anticipates his mortal death by crucifixion, while his disciples slumber. The monumentality of the figures in the foreground and the architecture demonstrate Poussins fascination with the classical world, while the treatment of light and the cascade of putti come from his interest in Venetian Renaissance painters. As he forged his identity as a major force in European painting, Poussin would continue to emphasize the relationship to antiquity and classical sculpture, leaving an indelible impact on the history of art. The work is now on view in Gallery 621. More information is available by visiting www.metmuseum.org. About Jon and Barbara Landau Longtime supporters of The Met, Jon and Barbara Landau collect widely in European art, notably focused on the Italian Renaissance, with works by Titian, Jacopo Tintoretto and Donatello, and 19th-century French painting, including canvases by Eugne Delacroix, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-Franois Millet and one of the largest private holdings of paintings by Gustave Courbet. Mr. Landau serves on The Mets Visiting Committees for European Paintings and Paintings Conservation. He and Mrs. Landau are Friends of European Paintings and Wrightsman Fellows of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. In celebration of The Mets 150th anniversary in 2020, they made a promised gift of a pioneering landscape by Thodore Rousseau, titled Hamlet in the Auvergne.