The following was written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California:

Nicolas Poussin was born in 1594 to middle-class parents in a small village near the town of Les Andelys in Normandy, France. Apart from a few lessons from the now almost forgotten Mannerist, Quentin Varin, Poussin was his own painting master.

His formal education was literary; he learned Latin first at the parish school, then at college, and with that foundation was able to acquire a considerable knowledge of the Latin Poets. His self-education in art and literature was a lifelong project for him. In Paris, he became the pupil of Noel Jouvenet, then Ferdinand Elle, and Lallemant.

The p...