by Lorain Blanken

Created on: February 22, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

The story of the founder of French classicism is found to begin when a painter by the name of Quentin Varin visited the town of Led Andelys in 1612 on commission to produce several paintings for the Church of le Grand Andely. In the same small town, a son of small farmers was educated, and upon observation of Varin's visit, he was awakened to the world of the arts. The boy was Nicolas Poussin and it is at this moment that inspiration dawned in his life and he decided to become a painter.

Acquiring a suitable teacher was a difficult task for Poussin. This was impossible to accomplish within his small village, so he left his home and journeyed to Rouen, then Paris. Although ambition in his endeavor was genuine, his poverty and ignorance won over in the end of this era of great hardships for Poussin. He found no satisfactory master and ultimately returned home to his parents in a state of sickness and humility, only having studied under several minor painters to show for the excursion.

This trip was not without it's inspirations, and setting out from home upon recovery a year later, Poussin headed to Paris again, with a different agenda this time. As well as continuing his studies, Poussin nourished an exposure to Italian High Renaissance through reproductions of Raphael paintings he had incurred on his previous journey. This was his inspiration to go to what was then the center of the European art world, Rome.

This was not possible until 1624, when Giambattista Marino, the Italian court poet to Marie de Medicis, commissioned him to make a series of mythological drawings illustrating Ovid's Metamorphoses'. These illustrations are the only works that survive from Poussin's early career. Once in Rome, Poussin had declared it his new home, and would indeed remain there but for a short trip to Paris which we will explore later in his career.

During this time, Poussin was experimenting with the current popular painting styles in Rome, including that of Domenichino, which proved to be a large influence on his work at this time. Generating a large altarpiece in 1629 for St. Peter's, Poussin represented the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus in Baroque style, which was a bold move when working among the Italian Masters of the time. The piece was considered a failure in pale comparison among the artistic community.

Swallowing this defeat and taking note to never compete with the Italian masters again, Poussin retracted for a great time to smaller works commissioned by private patrons.

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