_Gaspard Poussin_ (French: 1613-1675). _See_ 31.
The one gleam of light breaking through the clouds falls on the watch
tower of a castle, perched on a rock--"a stately image of stability,"
where all things else are bent beneath the power of the storm. The
spirit of the picture is, however, better than its execution. Take,
for instance, the clouds. They are mere "massive concretions of ink
and indigo, wrung and twisted very hard, apparently in a vain effort
to get some moisture out of them" (_Modern Painters_, vol. i. pt.
ii. sec. iii. ch. iv. § 6). In the tree forms, again, Ruskin sees a
concentration of errors. "Gaspard Poussin, by his bad drawing, does
not make his stem strong, but his tree weak; he does not make his
gust violent, but his boughs of Indian-rubber" (for details of this
criticism see _ibid._, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. vi. ch. i. §§ 12, 13).