its and your works, in the place
where you now reside. By our order, given to M. de Noyers, you will
learn more particularly the favor we have determined to shew you. We
will add nothing to this present, but to pray God to have you in his
holy keeping.

"Given at Fontainebleau,
Jan. 15, 1639."

Poussin accepted the invitation with great reluctance, at the earnest
solicitation of his friends. On his arrival at Paris he was received
with marked distinction, appointed principal painter to the king, with a
pension, and accommodated with apartments in the Tuileries. He was
commissioned to paint an altar-piece for the chapel of St. Germain en
Laie, where he produced his admirable work of the Last Supper, and was
engaged to decorate the Gallery of the Louvre with the Labors of
Hercules. He had already prepared the designs and some of the cartoons
for these works, when he was assailed by the machinations of Simon Vouet
and his adherents; and even the landscape painter Fouquieres, jealous of
his fame, presumed to criticise his works and detract from their merit.

POUSSIN'S RETURN TO ROME.

Poussin, naturally of a peaceful turn of mind, fond of retirement and
the society of a few select literary friends, was disgusted with the
ostentation of the court and the cabals by which he was surrounded; he
secretly sighed for the quiet felicity he had left at Rome, and resolved
to return thither without delay. For this purpose, he solicited and
obtained leave of the king to visit Italy and settle his affairs, and
fetch his wife; but when he had once crossed the Alps, no inducement
could prevail on him to revisit his native country, or even to leave
Rome. During a period of twenty-three years after his return to Rome
from Paris, he lived a quiet, unostentatious life, and executed a great
number of pictures, which decorate the principal cabinets of Europe, and
will ever be regarded as among their most valuable ornaments. He
confined himself mostly to works of the large easel size, which were
eagerly sought after, and usually disposed of as soon as they were
executed. He never made any words about the price of his pictures, but
asked a modest and moderate price, which he always marked upon the back
of his canvas, and which was invariably paid. Many of his works were
sent to Paris, where they were valued next to the productions of
Raffaelle. He was plain and unassuming in his manners, very frugal in
his living, yet so liberal