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How was Nicolas Poussin’s The Death of the Virgin rediscovered?
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Nicolas Poussin
Adoration of the Golden Calf, oil on canvas by Nicolas Poussin, c. 1634. 153.4 × 211.8 cm.
Nicolas Poussin’s 1623 painting, The Death of the Virgin, was commissioned for a chapel in Notre-Dame but went missing following the French Revolution. For many years, the work was known only through a preparatory drawing.1
The painting was eventually rediscovered in a small church located in the town of Sterrebeek, outside of Brussels, and has since been restored. Prior to this discovery, the so-called "Marino drawings" were considered the only certain surviving works from the artist's pre-Roman period.1