1594 -1665 · Normandy, Paris and Rome

Sovereign composition, ancient thought and moral landscape make Nicolas Poussin the great founder of French classicism.

Nicolas Poussin was born in Les Andelys in 1594 and died in Rome in 1665. Trained in Normandy then in Paris, he went to Rome in 1624 after passing through Venice and remained there almost all his life. Titian's study nourished the sensuality and color of his first bacchanals; Raphael, Antiquity, Ovid, Plutarch and poetry then gave his art unparalleled intellectual discipline. Poussin mainly painted easel paintings for learned amateurs like Cassiano dal Pozzo. The Shepherds of Arcadia organized four figures around a tomb bearing the inscription "Et in Arcadia ego": ideal landscape and discovery of death became a meditation on time. The Abduction of the Sabines, on the contrary, orders collective violence by diagonals, groups and calculated gestures. In Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice, the calm immensity of nature absorbs mythological drama while a distant fire threatens harmony. The Assumption of the Virgin transforms elevation into clear movement of bodies and light. Recalled to Paris by Louis XIII between 1640 and 1642, Poussin quickly returned to Rome, where his landscapes and late works became more personal, serious and meditative. Recalled to Paris by Louis XIII between 1640 and 1642, Poussin quickly returned to Rome, where his landscapes and late works became more personal, serious and meditative. The "Nicolas Poussin" selection notably compares The Shepherds of Arcadia and The Abduction of the Sabines. His reading favors movement.

Poussin orders the visible to make people think: each gesture, tree and interval gives the story the calm necessity of a demonstration and the depth of a meditation.