The Abduction of the Sabine Women (in French, L'Enlèvement des Sabines) is a painting by the French painter Nicolas Poussin. It is done in oil on canvas. It measures 159 cm high and 206 cm wide. It was painted between 1637 and 1638. It is located in the Louvre Museum in Paris (France).

This painting represents the mythical episode of the Abduction of the Sabine women by the Romans due to the lack of women and, consequently, descendants. In this myth, the Romans organize a banquet with the Sabines and take the opportunity to kidnap the Sabine women who will later be the ones who bring the two peoples together.

The composition of this canvas reflects all the tension and drama of the episode. The characters are numerous: Roman soldiers are paired with women who struggle to flee and cry. Alone in the midst of chaos, an old Sabine woman implores Romulus, a character in the red cloak who supervises the scene on the right side of the table. The architecture is present like a theater set. It is evidently anachronistic due to its classicism. Poussin uses a “furious” mode of expression that, according to him, perfectly describes the incredible war scenes. Use strong and aggressive colors such as red, orange or yellow.

In 1974, the Peruvian painter Herman Braun-Vega, living in Paris, carried out a technical and iconographic study of The Abduction of the Sabine Women from the Louvre to produce his series of twenty paintings on The Abduction of the Sabine Women by Poussin, which he transposed to contemporary French and international reality.[1] He was especially interested in the relationship between civil and military, aggression and political and social violence, universal themes of Poussin's painting that he updated in the context of the 1970s.

In this series, Braun-Vega adopts a "Poussinian" structure — a cold and rigorous plastic construction — that contrasts with the warmth of color and the insertion of contemporary motifs, such as everyday consumer objects or press clippings,[2]​ to underline the violence of his time,[3]​ in particular the coup d'état in Chile or the attack on the drugstore in the Saint-Germain neighborhood "Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Paris)") of Paris.[4]​ He appropriated the elements of Poussin's painting, putting them in perspective with trivial or contemporary elements,[5]​trompe l'oeil still lifes[6]​ (for example, ,[7]​ [8]​), to offer an ironic and critical look at modern society and consumer culture.[9]​ His approach is not one of parody, but rather the transfer of values,[10]​ seeking above all to demonstrate the continuity of art.[11]​.