Your Very Humble and Very Affectionate Servant: The Letters of Nicolas Poussin, 1630–1665

In the mid-seventeenth century, NICOLAS POUSSIN changed the course of European painting and set the terms for subsequent generations of artists by bringing a new intellectual and poetical yet thoroughly “modern” methodology to art. His correspondence constitutes one of the rarest and most unique documents of Western art history. One hundred fourteen years after the publication of the first complete and rigorously prepared French edition of Poussin’s letters by Charles Jouanny, most of his letters have until now remained untranslated; of those that were translated, nearly all focus on his paintings or methodology. But there is much to be learned from the many letters that deal with seemingly mundane matters, such as running errands for his patrons, quarreling with collectors and patrons about money, and dealing with the challenging logistics of shipping artworks from Rome to Paris. Most of the letters that survived were addressed to two patrons, both major collectors with connections to the cultural, intellectual, and political forces active in the seventeenth century: CASSIANO DAL POZZO, arguably the most educated man in Rome who frequented the highest intellectual circles of Europe; and PAUL FRÉART DE CHANTELOU, one of the most influential collectors and patrons of the arts in Paris. Poussin’s letters are filled with a sense of morality, loyalty, devotion, and even love toward these two men. Translated, annotated, and with an introduction by Klaus Ottmann; second, revised printing, with 84 color plates.