Believe it or not, they have a lot in common

Dulwich Picture Gallery Until September 25

THERE'S an odd couple in Dulwich. One is an American abstract expressionist, the other a classical French painter. They're separated by three centuries. And both feature in a fascinating new exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Cy Twombly, Quattro Stagioni: Autunno, 1993-5, Acrylic, oil, crayon and pencil on canvas, 3230 x 2254 x 67mm. Tate: Purchased with assistance of American Fund for the Tate Gallery and Tate Members 2002 ©Tate, London, 2010 ©Cy Twombly
Nicolas Poussin, Rinaldo and Armida (c. 1630) 82.2cm x 109.2cm © By permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

One is the French artist Nicolas Poussin, whose works are luxuriously detailed and were very influential. The other is Cy Twombly, an American, 83, bold, energetic and challenging, with an abstract style consisting of apparently random scribbles.

Twombly himself a great admirer of Poussin's work is quoted to have said "I would've liked to have been Poussin, if I'd had a choice, in another time."

And that is the quote that spurred the director of Dulwich Gallery to arrange an exhibition of two artists with at first sight very little in common.

Twombly & Poussin: Arcadian Painters, presents some of their works side by side for the first time. Remarkably, there are similarities, the key themes of Arcadia and the pastoral, passion and love, violence and war, and mythological figures that are central to both artists' work.

Their life stories blend. Each moved to Rome when aged 30, and spent most of their lives there. Their works share common themes, subject matter and motifs, and both are gripped by the classical myth. Other subjects they shared included passion and love, violence and war.