The Inspiration of the Poet

Poussin painted this in Rome at the end of the 1620s, still a French newcomer soaking up the warm Venetian colour of Titian, whose canvases he could study across the city. You can see that debt in the golden light on Apollo, who reaches to crown a poet caught mid-thought, pen poised, a book on his lap, a Muse standing quietly beside him. Even in the 17th century nobody was certain which poet or which text was meant, and an early inventory simply calls it Apollo with a Muse and a poet. Around the time he finished it Poussin married Anne Dughet, a young Roman woman. Much later the royal gardener Andre Le Notre owned the picture and gave it to Louis XIV.