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NICOLAS POUSSIN
Public domain, via
Wikimedia Commons
Self-portrait by Poussin, 1650 |
- Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome.
- Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a small group of Italian and French collectors.
- He returned to Paris for a brief period to serve as First Painter to the King under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, but soon returned to Rome and resumed his more traditional themes.
- In his later years he gave growing prominence to the landscape in his paintings.
- His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color.
- Until the 20th-century he remained a major inspiration for such classically-oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Paul Cézanne.
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He was persuaded to return to France in 1640 to be First Painter to the King but, dissatisfied with the overwhelming workload and the court intrigues, returned permanently to Rome after a little more than a year. Among the important works from his later years are Orion Blinded Searching for the Sun, Landscape with Hercules and Cacus, and The Seasons.
(Wikipedia)
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