In 1612, at the age of eighteen, Poussin went to Paris in search of
improvement, where he devoted himself to studying the best works to
which he could gain access (for the fine arts were then at a low ebb in
France) with the greatest assiduity. In 1620, according to Felibien, the
Jesuits celebrated the canonization of the founder of their order,
Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, on which occasion they
determined to display a series of pictures by the first artists in
Paris, representing the miracles performed by their patron saints. Of
these, Poussin painted six in distemper, in an incredibly short space of
time, and when the exhibition came off, although he had been obliged to
neglect detail, his pictures excited the greatest admiration on account
of the grandeur of conception, and the elegance of design displayed in
them. They obtained the preference over all the others, and brought
Poussin immediately into notice.