Corner, John [Bearb.]: Portraits of celebrated painters, with medallions from their best performances: with authentic memoirs, from established authorities (London: published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1825)

NICOLAS POUSSIN.

Louis XIII. appointed him his first Painter in Ordinary, and sent for him
to Paris for the purpose of decorating the grand gallery of the Louvre; but
his talents raised such a host of envious and intriguing enemies, that after
avenging himself by a satirical picture, called “ Adieux de Nicolas Poussin b
ses Ennemis de Paris,” he quitted France in disgust §, and returned to his
beloved Rome, where he spent the remainder’ of his days, neither opulent nor
necessitous, but happy and respected.
From the mode of study he adopted, it is not surprising that his figures
generally betray their marble origin; he less imitated the spirit of the ancients
than copied their relics and painted sculpture They selected and concen-
trated the beautiful in nature, and whoever would rival them must adopt the
same means.
His works are enumerated and described by Felibien. Among the most
excellent are the Seven Sacraments, the Death of Germanicus, the Abandon-
ment of Moses, the Flight into Egypt, and the Annunciation.

§ Lenoir Histoire des Arts en France.

4ft Fuseli,