Nicolas Poussin

Poussin, Nicolas (1594–1665), greatest 17th-century French Baroque painter. He worked mostly in Rome and based his style on Raphael and antiquities. He was first painter to Louis XII. His classical and religious subjects, such as Shepherds of Arcadia (1629), The Rape of the Sabine Women (1635), and The Seven Sacraments (1644–48) are rich in color, austere in handling, dramatic, and evocative in mood. He influenced Jacques-Louis David, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso.