17-1655), is due 586, St. Bruno and his
Companions bestowing Alms, one of the famous series illustrating the
life of St. Bruno, of which the greater number are in

ROOM XII.

whither we now return. This eminently religious and tender artist is
well represented in the Louvre, and the sympathetic student will
appreciate the austere and sincere devotion expressed in these
pictures, painted for the brethren of the Charterhouse in the Rue
d'Enfer. The finest, a masterpiece, both in beauty of composition and
depth of feeling, is 584, The Death of St. Bruno. The artist's careful
application to his monumental task may be estimated by the fact that
146 preliminary drawings for this series are preserved in the Louvre.
Lesueur's modesty and high purpose went almost unheeded amid the
exultant prosperity of the fashionable courtier-artists of his day. We
retrace our steps, pass through Room XIII., turn R., and enter the
spacious

ROOM XIV.

also devoted to seventeenth-century artists. Lesueur is here seen in
another masterpiece; 560, R. wall, St. Paul at Ephesus, a _mai_[215]
picture; and 556, same wall, Christ bearing His Cross. The influence
of Raphael in the former is very apparent. The hierophant of the
school, Vouet, is represented in this room by some dozen examples,
among which hangs his masterpiece 971, L. wall, Presentation at the
Temple. A work, 25, Charity, by his short-lived rival, Jacques
Blanchard, (1600-1638), known in his day as the French Titian, may be
seen towards the end of this long gallery on the R. wall. A talented
artist too was Jean de Bologne, an Italian by birth and known as Le
Valentin (1591-1634). A good example of his style will be seen in 56
(same wall), Susannah. We now turn to Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665),
the greatest master of his age, whose exalted and lucid conceptions,
ripe scholarship, admirable art and fertility of invention, may be
adequately appreciated at the Louvre alone, which holds a matchless
collection of nearly fifty of his works. The visitor, fresh from the
rich and glowing colour, the grandeur and breadth of the later
Italians, will perchance experience a certain chill before the
sobriety, the cold intellectuality and severe classic reserve of this
powerful artist. Let us however remember his aim and ideal: to produce
a picture in which correct drawing and science of linear and aerial
perspective should subserve harmony of composition, lucid expression
and classic grace. To ap