ign and hostile to me as is the light to deepest darkness. (Hibbard, 23)He had written this to a friend in Paris in 1642. His popularity increased to international status and was well revered. In 1643 we hear him first complain of his trembling hand (Hibbard, 24) that later in his life so greatly affected him that he could hardly write let alone paint. Poussin was compared with the great Raphel. Duc de Chevreuse stated:The most illustrious painter of all times, equaling Raphel in drawing and surpassing him in history and composition (Hibbard, 24).By the 1660s, Poussin had aged considerably; he had all but ceased painting and lived more and more like a stoic philosopher (Hibbard, 25). His wife passed away in late 1664, having bore no children to Poussin, he sank into depression and feeling older. A month after the death of his wife, Anne-Marie, he wrote Chantelou:When I needed her most she left me, full of years, paralytic, wracked by all kinds of infirmities, a stranger and without friends(Hibbard, 25)Six months after the death of his wife Poussin himself passed away. Jean Dughet, his father-in-law, wrote:Your Highness has doubtless heard of the death of the famous M. Poussin, or rather, of painting itself.(Hibbard, 25)The Rape of the SabinesPoussin painted two versions of this painting one hangs at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the other hangs in the Louvre. No one is sure which of the two were painted first. Blunt dates the Louvre version 1635 and the New York one 1637. Both paintings seem to have been painted at two different periods; though they have similar dimensions, they differ in conception as well as in execution. The Metropolitan Museum version is barer, conforming more to the classical ideal, it has fewer figures than the Louvre version, and its composition is very close to Giovanni da Bologna. On the other hand the Louvre version which seems to be more a baroque, is in fact more complex in...
