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Written on March 16, 2010 – 1:01 pm | by admin |

Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin (15 June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century. Until the 20th century he remained the major inspiration for such classically-oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David and Paul Cézanne.
He spent most of his working life in Rome, except for a short period when Cardinal Richelieu ordered him back to France to serve as First Painter to the King.
Poussin was born near Les Andelys in Normandy and that he received an education that included some Latin, which would stand him in good stead. Early sketches attracted the notice of Quentin Varin, a local painter, whose pupil Poussin became, until he ran away to Paris at the age of eighteen. There he entered the studios of the Flemish painter Ferdinand Elle and then of Georges Lallemand, both minor masters now remembered for having tutored Poussin. He found French art in a stage of transition: the old apprenticeship system was disturbed, and the academic training destined to supplant it was not yet established by Simon Vouet; but having met Courtois the mathematician, Poussin was fired by the study of his collection of engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi after Italian masters.
After two abortive attempts to reach Rome, he fell in with Giambattista Marino, the court poet to Marie de Medici, at Lyon. Marino employed him on illustrations to his poem Adone (untraced) and on a series of illustrations for a projected edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, took him into his household, and in 1624 enabled Poussin (who had been detained by commissions in Lyon and Paris) to rejoin him at Rome. Poussin was thirty when he arrived in Rome. At first he lodged with Simon Vouet. Through Marino, he had been introduced to Marcello Sacchetti who in turn introduced him to another of his early patrons, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Financial difficulties arose with the departure to Spain of Barberini, accompanied by Cassiano dal Pozzo, the antiquarian and the Cardinal’s secretary, who later would become a great friend and patron. However, their return from Spain in 1626 stabilized Poussin’s position, with renewed patronage by the Barberini and their circle.

Self portrait, 1650
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The victory of Joshua over amorites, 1626
Oil on canvas,
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia ▼

The battle of Joshua with amalekites, 1625
Oil on canvas,
The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Acis and Galathea, 1628
Oil on canvas,
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland ▼

Mars and Venus, 1628
Oil on canvas,
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA ▼

Renaud and Armide, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK ▼

Parnasus,1635
Oil on canvas,
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain ▼

The shepherds of Arcadia, 1627
Oil on canvas,
The Duke of Devonshire
and the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees,
Chatsworth, UK ▼

The lamentation over Christ, 1627
Oil on canvas,
Alte Pinakothek, München, Germany ▼

St. Cecilia, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain ▼

The death of Germanicus, 1628
Oil on canvas,
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, USA ▼

Echo and Narcissus, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The triumph of Flora, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Andrians or the great Bacchanal with woman playing a lute, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Venus lamenting over Adonis, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Musee des Beaux Arts, Caen, France ▼

The martyrdom of St. Erasmus, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Museum of Vatican ▼

The inspiration of the poet, 1628
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The Virgin of the pillar appearing to St. James the Greater, 1630
Oil on canvas
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Helios and Phaeton with Saturn and the Four Seasons, 1630
Oil on canvas,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼

Tancred and Erminia, 1630
Oil on canvas,
The Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

The triumph of David, 1630
Oil on canvas,
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain ▼

Diana and Endymion, 1630
Oil on canvas,
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, USA ▼

Midas and Bacchus, 1630
Oil on canvas,
Alte Pinakothek, München, Germany ▼

Descend from the Cross, 1630
Oil on canvas,
The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

The sleeping Venus and Cupid, 1630
Oil on canvas,
Alte Meister Gallerie, Dresden, Germany ▼

The plague of Ashdod, 1631
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The garden of Flora, 1631
Oil on canvas,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼

Apollo and Muses, 1632
Oil on canvas,
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain ▼

Bacchanalia, 1633
Oil on canvas,
National Gallery, London, UK ▼

Tancrede and Erminia, 1634
Oil on canvas,
The Trustees of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts,
The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK ▼

The rescue of Pyrrhus, 1634
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Queen Zenobia found on the banks of the Arax, 1634
Oil on canvas,
The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

St. John Baptizing, 1635
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite, 1634
Oil on canvas,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA ▼

Pharaoh’s daughter finds baby Moses, 1638
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The shepherds of Arcadia, 1638
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The assumption of the Virgin, 1638
Oil on canvas,
The National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC, USA ▼

Landscape with St. Matthew, 1640
Oil on canvas,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼

The noble deed of Scipio, 1640
Oil on canvas,
The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia ▼

The marriage of the Virgin, 1640
Oil on canvas,
The Trustees of Rutland Trust,
Belvoir Castle, Grantham, UK ▼

The confirmation, 1640
Oil on canvas,
The Trustees of Rutland Trust,
Belvoir Castle, Grantham, UK ▼

The ordination, 1640
Oil on canvas,
The Trustees of Rutland Trust,
Belvoir Castle, Grantham, UK ▼

The last supper, 1640
Oil on canvas,
The Trustees of Rutland Trust,
Belvoir Castle, Grantham, UK ▼

The rape of the sabines, 1640
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, 1640
Oil on canvas,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria ▼

Esther before Assuerus, 1640
Oil on canvas,
The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Gathering of Manna, 1640
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The ecstasy of St. Paul, 1643
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Landscape with three men, 1650
Oil on canvas,
Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain ▼

The baptism of Christ, 1647
Oil on canvas,
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK ▼

Moses turning the Aaron’s staff into a serpent, 1647
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Landscape with the cinders of Phocion, 1647
Oil on canvas,
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK ▼

Eliezer and Rebecca, 1647
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Landscape with funeral of Phocion, 1650
Oil on canvas,
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK ▼

Landscape with Diogen, 1648
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The holy family on steps, 1648
Oil on canvas,
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA ▼

The judgment of Solomon, 1649
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Moses striking the rock for water, 1649
Oil on canvas,
The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

The assumption of the Virgin, 1650
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Christ and the woman taken in adultery, 1653
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

St. Peter and St. James cure the lame man, 1655
Oil on canvas,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA ▼

The annunciation, 1657
Oil on canvas,
Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, München, Germany ▼

Landscape with the blind orion looking for Sun, 1658
Oil on canvas,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA ▼

The spring. Adam and Eve in Paradise, 1664
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Summer. Ruth and Boaz, 1664
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Autumn. The grapes from the promised land, 1664
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

Winter. The deluge, 1664
Oil on canvas,
Louvre Museum, Paris, France ▼

The crucifixion
Oil on canvas,
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT, USA ▼