Nicolas Poussin Undraped (AUDIO)

Man, I, I don't know if today is a good-- if, if this is a good idea for me to talk about this artist.

Why? [laughs]

And here's the reason.

Here's the reason.

I, when I was, um, um, I remember the first experience I had with this artist.

I'm not gonna name him yet.

Okay.

People are gonna know 'cause they're gonna see the title.

But when I first had my experience with him, um, I was in London in the National Gallery studying at Sotheby's for my, my master's degree.

And my professor, who had been a student of Irwin Panofsky at the Warburg Institute, which is kind of like art royalty, art history intellectual royalty.

Yeah.

She said, "Today we're gonna stand in front of the paintings of one of the greatest artists who ever lived, who defined the way people thought about paintings up until this day."

Mm-hmm.

And she said, "He's called the Bach or the, of painting, or the philosopher painter.

And it's not just how he painted, it's the thought that he put into it."

Hmm.

And she said, "I'm gonna warn all of you here, not every one of you are gonna like, like him.

You're not gonna get him, you're not gonna understand him, and that's okay.

Don't be hard on yourselves.

But for those of you who like him, he'll change your world."

Really?

"He'll change, he'll change art for you." And, um, she-- I was lucky enough to have a professor who gave me a way into an artist that I would've otherwise not known how to look at and I would've just walked by.

Hmm.

And not thought much of.

So today we're gonna have a little different experience than what we normally do with these painters.