Nicolas
Poussin (born 1594 Les Andelys, France, died 1665 Rome),
was a French painter.
“Something celestial shone in his eyes; his pointed nose and wide
brow ennobled his modest face.”
So wrote a
biographer about Nicolas Poussin, a philosopher who expressed
himself in paint. Pointing to his forehead, Gian Lorenzo Bernini
called Poussin “a painter who works up here.” Born to
Norman peasants, Poussin went to Paris in 1612, working with Mannerist
artists and collaborating with Philippe de Champaigne. In Rome by
1624, he worked in Domenichino's studio, absorbing his composition
and cool colors. Poussin's art developed slowly. His first major
commission, an altarpiece for Saint Peter's Basilica, was
unsuccessful; in fact, he never painted again for a public building
in Rome but concentrated on small pictures for collectors. In 1640
Louis XIII persuaded him to supervise a large decorative project in
Paris, but Poussin soon returned to Rome, suited neither for large
projects nor for court intrigue and competition. He usually painted
what he chose, on speculation rather than commission, a practice
that led to reputation, not riches. Despite weak, shaky
hands — which plagued him as early as 1643 and were probably a
symptom of syphilis — Poussin painted by himself, lacking the
resources required to run a large workshop with assistants and
apprentices. His pictures, rather than pupils, shaped European art
for generations. Poussin was the chief formulator of the French
classical tradition in painting. By the mid-1630s, he began
exploring a serene, classical style inspired by Raphael and
antiquity, emphasizing form and moral content. His late works are
essays in solid geometry, with movement minimized and every element
given a symbolic meaning and pictorial function.