DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62822#0053
NICHOLAS POUSSIN.
xlvii
other productions of this year are not mentioned by
his biographer, Felibien; but in the following year he
executed, for the Due de Crequi, the subject of the
Discovery of Achilles at the Court of Lycomedes ;
for the Sieur Stella, the Birth, or Nurture of Bacchus ;
and for the Sieur Cerisiers, the Flight into Egypt.
A grand landscape, in which is introduced the
story of the Giant Orion, was painted in 1658, sor
M. Passart; a picture of the Flight into Egypt was
done for a Madame Montmort, in 1659; shortly aster
which he painted for M. Le Brun a landscape. Indis-
position now appears to have interrupted his pursuits,
for nothing more occurs by his hand until 1661, when
he completed a picture of Christ and the Samaritan
Woman for Madame de Chantelou : this is said to be
the last of his historical subjects, and when he sent it
to his friend, he wrote at the same time saying, “ This
“ is the last picture I shall do, for my fingers tell me
“ that my end approaches.” This was evidently
wrote under the influence of apprehension, for although
his infirmities increased daily, and two years after he
had the misfortune to lose his wife, yet he had not
wholly relinquished the pencil, for he completed in
1664, for the Duke of Richelieu, four landscapes,
illustrating, by the introduction of appropriate subjects
from scriptural history, the Four Seasons, which he
had commenced in 1660. These capital productions
show that neither age nor infirmity had in any way
diminished the powers of his mind; yet it is plain,
srom the contents of the sollowing letter, that his
physical powers had lost their energy, and that his
xlvii
other productions of this year are not mentioned by
his biographer, Felibien; but in the following year he
executed, for the Due de Crequi, the subject of the
Discovery of Achilles at the Court of Lycomedes ;
for the Sieur Stella, the Birth, or Nurture of Bacchus ;
and for the Sieur Cerisiers, the Flight into Egypt.
A grand landscape, in which is introduced the
story of the Giant Orion, was painted in 1658, sor
M. Passart; a picture of the Flight into Egypt was
done for a Madame Montmort, in 1659; shortly aster
which he painted for M. Le Brun a landscape. Indis-
position now appears to have interrupted his pursuits,
for nothing more occurs by his hand until 1661, when
he completed a picture of Christ and the Samaritan
Woman for Madame de Chantelou : this is said to be
the last of his historical subjects, and when he sent it
to his friend, he wrote at the same time saying, “ This
“ is the last picture I shall do, for my fingers tell me
“ that my end approaches.” This was evidently
wrote under the influence of apprehension, for although
his infirmities increased daily, and two years after he
had the misfortune to lose his wife, yet he had not
wholly relinquished the pencil, for he completed in
1664, for the Duke of Richelieu, four landscapes,
illustrating, by the introduction of appropriate subjects
from scriptural history, the Four Seasons, which he
had commenced in 1660. These capital productions
show that neither age nor infirmity had in any way
diminished the powers of his mind; yet it is plain,
srom the contents of the sollowing letter, that his
physical powers had lost their energy, and that his