Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665

by Richard Verdi

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was the greatest French painter of the 17th century, and one of the greatest painters of all time. His profound understanding of the art of antiquity and of the Italian Renaissance led him to create works of such sophistication, clarity and discipline that they remained the model for all classicising artists up to Cezanne and even into our own century. Although Poussin's subject-matter was largely religious and mythological, Richard Verdi shows in his illuminating introductory essay that it derived from themes and preoccupations that were intensely personal in origin. At the same time, Poussin's study of the countryside around Rome laid the foundations for landscape paintings of heroic grandeur and lyrical beauty. This catalogue accompanies the first comprehensive exhibition of Poussin's paintings in Britain, staged to mark the 400th anniversary of the artist's birth. Some ninety paintings have been assembled from public and private collections throughout th