VISUAL ARTS : Choice

Metamorphosis was Poussin's great theme: change for the better or worse, but always change. Poussin confronts change like a man still so moved by it, so deeply affected by its inevitability, that he can hardly bear to face it.

The exhibition "Nicolas Poussin the Father of French Painting" at the Royal Academy (above, Eliezer and Rebecca, 1648) is much too remarkable and cornucopian a show for mere recommendations. Unless you are mad, stupid, terminally narrow-minded or have some other such watertight excuse make sure you visit it. There are also excellent, if less-publicised displays, at the Wallace Collection and the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

This is a particularly good time for London's art lovers - there is Klein at the Hayward, De Kooning's edible women at the Tate, and Odilon Redon's strange symbolist fantasies at the Royal Academy.