Nicolas Poussin’s masterpiece ‘L’Inspiration du poète’ (painted between 1625 and 1650) has returned to the Louvre this week, freshly and luminously restored after a long period in the workshops. May I simply say it is grand, and inspiring to behold. If I were a poet, I would be inspired, too.
So it’s finally back in the same room again as my favorite Poussin work ‘Et in Arcadia ego,’ which has always been the background photo on my front page profile. Over the years, the latter painting remains a work of art that, for me, has the innate ability to remove any so-called barrier between artist and viewer, negating time and space.
Curiously, it’s only when I am face to face in its presence that I have the sense of fully and completely understanding the enigmatic inscription engraved on that tomb as it is discovered by the Arcadian shepherds: “Et in Arcadia ego.”
