Self-Portrait (Poussin)

The painter stands gravely before a stack of his own canvases, an open frame behind him, his face composed and severe, a ring on his finger and a portfolio under his arm. Poussin made this self-portrait, at the height of his powers, as a statement of his art - cerebral, ordered, learned - rather than a display of charm. The blank frames and the figure of Painting glimpsed behind him turn the picture into a manifesto. It presents the artist not as a craftsman but as a thinker, the founder of French classical painting in full command.