Poussin

Nicolas Poussin (b.1594- d.1665). Born in Les Andelys, France of a peasant family, Poussin's earliest encounter with painting was through the work of Quentin Varin, who came to Les Andelys in 1611 to create a number of altarpieces. Inspired by Varin, Poussin left home in 1612, going to Rouen, where he worked with Noel Jouvenet, and then to Paris. He studied with Ferdinand Elle, the Flemish portrait painter and possibly also with Lallemant. Poussin was commissioned with Philippe de Champaigne (b.1602-d.1674) to do work for the Luxembourg Palace c.1621. Illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses were commissioned by the Italian poet Marino, his first patron, c.1623. After two abandoned journeys, he arrived in Rome in 1624 and married in 1630. Poussin returned to Paris in 1640, worked for Louis XIII and Richelieu, and was responsible for decoration of the Long Gallery of the Louvre. In 1642 Poussin left Paris for Rome where he continued to live and work for the last twenty-three years of his life. Poussin is celebrated for his Titian influenced Pagan or mythological paintings and his highly influential form of history-pictures. Ruskin's view of Poussin was slightly more generous than his attitude to either Claude or Gaspard Poussin.

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