POUSSIN, Nicolas
(b. 1594, Les Andelys, d. 1665, Roma)

Landscape with St Paul the Hermit

c. 1637
Oil on canvas, 155 x 234 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

This painting belongs to a series painted for the Buen Retiro Palace of King Philip IV. The hermit saint praying in the centre was traditionally identified as St Jerome. Recently, however, it has been shown that the saint is not St Jerome but St Paul the Hermit, whose presence is documented in the palace inventory of 1701.