Poussin’s Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonne by Christopher Wright; Chaucer Press, 2007, $125.

Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions edited by Pierre Rosenberg and Keith Christiansen;

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2008, $120.

Christopher Wright’s book is the second and much-updated and revised edition of a work which first appeared in 1985. It is the most widely accessible source book detailing the paintings of Nicolas Poussin, who was born in Normandy in 1594 and died at Rome in 1665. It is an attractive, good and useful book and well worth its cost.

Wright only offers us a thoughtful introduction surveying Poussin’s life and works and recording the disagreements on, and changes that have occurred to, attributions of works by this great artist. He also provides chapters on the artist’s early years in Rome, his early maturity in the 1630s, the mature works including the Sacraments series and related paintings, the landscape paintings and the final years. In addition, there are lists of the securely attributed paintings, lost and newly attributed paintings, an informative chronology of the artist’s life, some choice extracts from Poussin’s letters, and a selection of observations by critics. As well, Wright’s detailed chronology and history of paintings and collections is of great scholarly interest. There is also a list of Poussin’s patrons and the works executed for each of them.

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