Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin was born in June 1594 at Les Andelys in Normandy, France, and first trained in Rouen.⁠[1][2]

In 1611–1612 the itinerant painter Quentin Varin visited Les Andelys and became Poussin’s first teacher.⁠[1]

In about 1612 Poussin moved to Paris, where he studied anatomy, perspective and architecture, and he was active there from 1612 to 1623. Between 1619 and 1622 he made two unsuccessful attempts to reach Rome. In about 1622 he painted six large tempera works for the Jesuits, none of which survive, and in 1623 he was commissioned to paint The Death of the Virgin for a chapel in Notre-Dame.⁠[1][3][2]

In the spring of 1624 Poussin arrived in Rome via Venice, and he spent most of the rest of his life there. He arrived as “an unformed painter.” His early champion, the poet Giambattista Marino, died in Naples in 1625.⁠[2][1][3]

In 1627 Poussin painted The Death of Germanicus for Cardinal Francesco Barberini. At about the same time he met Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657), an archaeologist, philosopher and naturalist employed by the Barberini family, who became his close friend and chief Italian patron. His Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus of about 1627 later became the first Poussin acquired by an American museum.⁠[1][3][2]

In 1628, with dal Pozzo’s help, he received his only papal commission, The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus for St Peter’s. One of his largest and most Baroque compositions, it was coolly received.⁠[1][3]

In about 1630 Poussin fell seriously ill and was nursed back to health by the Dughet family; the same year he married their daughter, Anne-Marie Dughet.⁠[1]

By 1633 Poussin had abandoned his earlier sensual, Venetian-influenced style for a more disciplined manner; his work drew on ancient Greek and Roman sculpture to form a distinctive style. Works of this period include A Bacchanalian Revel before a Term of about 1632–1633 (bought by the National Gallery, London, in 1826), The Companions of Rinaldo of about 1633 and The Abduction of the Sabine Women, probably of 1633–1634.⁠[1][4][3]

From 1640 to 1642 Poussin returned briefly to Paris, where he made large works for King Louis XIII that were less successful than the rest of his output. Cardinal de Richelieu was among his patrons. He then went back to Rome, where he remained.⁠[2][5]

Late in his career Poussin painted the series of the Seven Sacraments, of which The Confirmation, in the Duke of Rutland’s collection at Belvoir Castle, is one. In 1651 he painted The Finding of Moses for the Lyon silk merchant Benardin Reynon (1613–1686), the last and most accomplished of his versions of the subject, drawing on ancient Roman architecture and recently discovered mosaics in Rome.⁠[3][6]

Works of this period also include Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man (1655) and Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun (1658). Toward the end of his life his art was transformed again into landscapes and allegorical works on the order and harmony of nature, including the Four Seasons, now in the Louvre.⁠[1][3]

Poussin died in Rome on November 19, 1665, aged 71. He is regarded as the founder of the French Classical tradition and the most influential French painter of the 17th century; in the later 18th century his reputation revived through Jacques-Louis David and the Neoclassical movement.⁠[1][5][4]

In 1988 the National Gallery in London and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales jointly bought The Finding of Moses (NG6519) with contributions from J. Paul GettyJ. Paul GettyJ. Paul Getty (1892–1976) was an American oil businessman and art collector who held a controlling interest in the Getty Oil Company and founded the J. Paul Getty Museum; his bequest built the J. Paul Getty Trust after his death.Open the full entry Jnr (through the American Friends of the National Gallery, London), the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Sir Denis Mahon and anonymous donors, among others.⁠[6]

The National Gallery states that Getty’s endowment helped it acquire works by artists including Poussin.⁠[7]