Poussin, Nicolas, poo SAN, nee kaw LAH (1594-1665), was the most highly respected French painter of his age. Poussin believed that painting should appeal to the mind more than to the senses. His works are meant to be read from figure to figure and incident to incident, and to be brought together as a whole in the viewer's mind. He believed an artist should choose as subjects only the noblest human actions, and he took almost all his subjects from mythology and from the Bible.