Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin was a French painter from Normandy who settled in Rome in 1624 and spent nearly all his life there, apart from a short unhappy spell as First Painter to Louis XIII in Paris. He painted biblical, mythological and historical subjects in a carefully composed, classical style for a small circle of learned collectors, and became the model for the French Academy. His best-known works include Et in Arcadia ego in the Louvre. The National Gallery in London holds The Adoration of the Golden Calf, A Dance to the Music of Time is in the Wallace Collection, and the Scottish National Gallery has his series of the Seven Sacraments, on loan from the Duke of Sutherland.