10 Facts about... Nicolas Poussin
Channel: Art & Facts (RemueMeninges)
Date: 2022-06-07

Nicolas Poussin was born into a rather modest Norman family but became one of the most 
celebrated painters of the 17th century. 
Most of his career took place in Rome, where he was appreciated as one of the 
most important artistic personalities of his time. 
Poussin approached painting thanks to the works of minor artists active in northern 
France . 
In 1612 he moved to Paris to study seriously, and for ten years he led a 
very poor life. 
Finally, in 1622, he was entrusted with a commission for the realization of six paintings for a Jesuit church. 
At the end of this work he decided to seek his fortune in Rome. 
In 1624 he landed in the Eternal City which would become his residence for the 
years to come. 
Here he studied the masterpieces of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, benefiting from the influence of Raphael and Titian. 
Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of the pope, became his patron and introduced him to many intellectuals and antique dealers in the city. 
Around 1629 Poussin fell seriously ill and was cared for by the family of a French cook who worked in Rome and whose daughter the artist married in 1630. 
The disease coincided with a change of direction in his art. 
The artist became aware of his failures and became convinced that his talent 
was not reserved for a large audience. 
And in fact, since 1630, having failed to obtain enough commissions for large 
works destined for churches, Poussin found his personal artistic vocation in the 
creation of small canvases for private and scholarly collectors. 
He preferred mythological subjects or episodes taken from classical literature or the Bible. 
Poussin's art was rooted in classicism and drew on the ideals of reason, balance, 
harmony, proportion and order. 
His works depict characters who move and act like actors on a stage, 
but frozen in time, movement and expression. 
The result is an image characterized by a great formal rigor. 
The shepherds of Arcadia are a perfect example of Poussin's art. 
The inscription Et in Arcadia Ego on an ancient Roman sarcophagus attracts the curiosity of a group of shepherds. 
The melancholy phrase is at the origin of the tone of the enigmatic painting. 
The warm autumn colors and the careful representation of the figures convey an atmosphere 
of tragic resignation and the idyll is broken by the memory of the inevitability 
of death even in the best of worlds. 
Each figure created by the artist is defined by a precise outline and modeled by 
bright colors . 
Poussin used small theaters and wax figures to experiment with the composition 
of his works, always firmly geometric. 
His style was radically different from the other current in vogue in those years: the baroque, 
exemplified by the free brushstrokes of the contemporary Rubens. 
Poussin's works became very popular among the nobility. 
After numerous pressures, he went to Paris in 1640, where Louis XIII appointed him as the king's first painter. 
However, he was not happy and the following year he decided to return to Rome, where he remained until his death. 
Philosopher painter with an intellectual streak, he was at the center of a debate throughout the 17th century 
. 
Artists and scholars wondered which of the two styles, "poussinism" or "rubenism", had greater artistic value. 
A debate that reached its peak between 1672 and 1678. 


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