Nicolas Poussin

{"Id":364,"Name":"Nicolas Poussin","Biography":"POUSSIN, NICOLAS (1594\u0026mdash;1665), French painter, was born at Les Andelys (Eure) in June 1594. Early sketches attracted the notice of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/varin_quentin.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EQuentin Varin\u003C/a\u003E, a local painter, whose pupil Poussin became, till he went to Paris, where he entered the studio of Ferdinand Elle, a Fleming, and then of the Lorrainer L\u0026rsquo;Allemand. He found French art in a stage of transition: the old apprenticeship system was disturbed, and the academical schools destined to supplant it were not yet established; but, having met Courtois the mathematician, Poussin was fired by the study of his collection of engravings after Italian masters. After two abortive attempts to reach Rome, he fell in with the chevalier Marini at Lyons. Marini employed him on illustrations to his poems, took him into his household, and in 1624 enabled Poussin (who had been detained by commissions in Lyons and Paris) to rejoin him at Rome. There, his patron having died, Poussin fell into great distress. Falling ill he was received into the house of his compatriot Dughet and nursed by his daughter Anna Maria to whom in 1629, Poussin was married. Among his first patrons were \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbarbn.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECardinal Barberini\u003C/a\u003E, for whom was painted the \u003Cu\u003EDeath of Germanicus\u003C/u\u003E (\u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.ticketeria.it/barberini-eng.asp#\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EBarberini Palace\u003C/a\u003E); Cardinal Omodei, for whom he produced, in 1630, the \u003Cu\u003ETriumphs of Flora\u003C/u\u003E (Louvre); \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13047a.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECardinal de Richelieu\u003C/a\u003E, who commissioned a Bacchanal (Louvre); \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.biblhertz.it/Mitarbeiter/Strunck/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EVincenzo Giustiniani\u003C/a\u003E, for whom was executed the \u003Cu\u003EMassacre of the Innocents\u003C/u\u003E, of which there is a first sketch in the British Museum; \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.britac.ac.uk/arp/pozzo/intro.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECassiano dal Pozzo\u003C/a\u003E, who became the owner of the first series of the \u003Cu\u003ESeven Sacraments\u003C/u\u003E (\u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.belvoircastle.com/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EBelvoir Castle\u003C/a\u003E); and Fi\u0026eacute;art de Chanteloup, with whom in 1640 Poussin, at the call of Sublet de Noyers, returned to France. \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIII_of_France\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELouis XIII\u003C/a\u003E. conferred on him the title of \u0026ldquo;first painter in ordinary,\u0026rdquo; and in two years at Paris he produced several pictures for the royal chapels (the \u003Cu\u003ELast Supper\u003C/u\u003E, painted for Versailles, now in the Louvre) and eight cartoons for the Gobelins, the series of the \u003Cu\u003ELabours of Hercules\u003C/u\u003E for the Louvre, the \u003Cu\u003ETriumph of Truth\u003C/u\u003E for Cardinal Richelieu (Louvre), and much minor work. In 1643, disgusted by the intrigues of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/vouet_simon.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESimon Vouet\u003C/a\u003E, Feuqui\u0026ecirc;res and the architect \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09147a.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELemercier\u003C/a\u003E, Poussin withdrew to Rome. There, in 1648, he finished for De Chanteloup the second series of the \u003Cu\u003ESeven Sacraments\u003C/u\u003E (Bridgewater Gallery), and also his noble landscape with Diogenes throwing away his Scoop (Louvre); in 1649 he painted the \u003Cu\u003EVision of St Paul\u003C/u\u003E (Louvre) for the comic poet \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13516a.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EScarron\u003C/a\u003E, and in 1651 the \u003Cu\u003EHoly Family\u003C/u\u003E (Louvre) for the duke of Cr\u0026eacute;qui. Year by year he continued to produce an enormous variety of works, many of which are included in the list given by F\u0026eacute;libien. He died on the i9th of November 1665 and was buried in the church of St Lawrence in Lucina, his wife having predeceased him.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe finest collection of Poussin\u0026rsquo;s paintings as well as of his drawings is possessed by the Louvre; but, besides the pictures in the National Gallery and at Dulwich, England possesses several of his most considerable works: The \u003Cu\u003ETriumph of Pan\u003C/u\u003E is at Baisildon (Berkshire), and his great allegorical painting of the \u003Cu\u003EArts\u003C/u\u003E at Knowsley. At Rome, in the Colonna and Valentini Palaces, are notable works by him, and one of the private apartments of Prince Doria is decorated by a great series of landscapes in distemper. Throughout his life he stood aloof from the popular movement of his native school. French art in his day was purely decorative, but in Poussin we find a survival of the impulses of the Renaissance coupled with conscious reference - to classic work as the standard of excellence. In general we see his paintings at a great disadvantage, for the colour, even of the best preserved, has changed in parts, so that the keeping is disturbed; and the noble construction of his designs can be better seen in engravings than in the original. Amongst the many who have reproduced his works \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02071a.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EAudran\u003C/a\u003E, Claudine Stella, \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/picart_bernard.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EPicart\u003C/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/pesne_antoine.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EPesne\u003C/a\u003E are the most successful.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EPoussin left no children, but he adopted as his son Gaspar Dughet (Gasparo Duche), his wife\u0026rsquo;s brother, who took the name of Poussin. \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=107\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EGASPAR POUSSIN\u003C/a\u003E (1613\u0026mdash;1675) devoted himself to landscape painting and rendered admirably the severer beauties of the Roman Campagna; a noteworthy series of works in tempera representing various sites near Rome is to be seen in the Colonna Palace; but one of his finest easel-pictures, the \u003Cu\u003ESacrifice of Abraham\u003C/u\u003E, formerly the property of the Colonna, is now, with other works by the same painter, in the National Gallery, London. The frescoes executed by Gaspar Poussin in S. Martino di Monti are in a bad state of preservation. The Louvre does not possess a single work by his hand. Gaspar died at Rome on the 27th of May 1675.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cu\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESelect Bibliography:\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/u\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003EEmilia F. S. Pattison (Lady Dilke). \u003Cu\u003EDocuments in\u0026eacute;dits, Le Poussin, in Lan\u003C/u\u003E. 1882.\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003EBouchitt\u0026eacute;. \u003Cu\u003EPoussin et son oeuvre\u003C/u\u003E. 1858.\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003ED\u0026rsquo;Argenville. \u003Cu\u003EAbr\u0026eacute;g\u0026eacute; de la vie des peintres\u003C/u\u003E. 1882.\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003EF\u0026eacute;libien, Entretiens; Gault de St Germain. \u003Cu\u003EVie deNicolas Poussin\u003C/u\u003E. 1806.\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003ESandrart (Acad. nob, art. pict.). \u003Cu\u003E Lettres de Nicolas Poussin\u003C/u\u003E. Paris, 1824.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESource:\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E Entry on the artist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://24.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PO/POUSSIN_NICOLAS.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E1911 Edition Encyclopedia\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":false,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":false,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":true,"HasProducts":true,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":87}