Although Reynolds's view of Poussin is one of appreciation, he does criticize aspects of his painterly practice. In his eighth discourse, Reynolds notes, for instance, that Poussin's 'figures are often too much dispersed, without sufficient attention to place them in groups'. The characteristic simplicity of Poussin's painting, Reynolds adds, 'might proceed from too great an affection to simplicity of another kind; too great a desire to avoid that ostentation of art, with regard to light and shadow' ( Reynolds, Discourses, pp.147-148). In the same lecture, Reynolds develops his critique of Poussin's 'simplicity':
I can fancy, that even Poussin, by abhorring that affectation and that want of simplicity, which he observed in his countrymen, has, in certain particulars, fallen into the contrary extreme, so far as to approach to a kind of affectation, - to what, in writing, would be called pedantry. ( Reynolds, Discourses, pp.150-151)