Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

Poussin was the greatest classicising painter of the seventeenth century and the Baroque period. Born in Normandy, France, he travelled to Italy when he was thirty and stayed there, returning to France only once on short trip to Paris.

Finished drawings by Poussin are rare. It is known that when Poussin drew it was a frenzied act of getting his ideas onto paper, and he would normally produce numerous sketches from one idea. He was the great painter of epic and narrative works, with the Greek gods, the Christian God, or the overwhelming force of nature as his most frequent subjects.