Texts collected and presented by Anthony Blunt – Hermann, Collection Savoir: sur l’art series (Knowledge collection: on the art series), 1989
These letters by the greatest classical French artist, and the accompanying eye-witness accounts from his contemporaries, reassert the painter’s emotion and humanity. They follow his travels between France and Rome; tell the story of the lies and suffering that marked his life, of his growing solitude and his bitterness. They explain the constant evolution of Poussin’s work, leaning towards increasingly austere art which occasionally shines a light on the dark glow of depression.