thumb|right|350px|Poussin's [[Et in Arcadia ego (Poussin)|Et in Arcadia ego (Les Bergers d’Arcadie), late 1630s.]]
In 1671, an argument broke out in the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris about whether drawing or color was more important in painting. On one side stood the Poussinists (Fr. Poussinistes) who were a group of French artists, named after the painter Nicolas Poussin, who believed that drawing was the more important thing. On the other side were the Rubenists (Fr. Rubénistes), named after Peter Paul Rubens, who prioritized color. There was a strong nationalistic flavour to the debate as Poussin was French but Rubens was Flemish, though neither was alive at the time. After over forty years the final resolution of the matter in favor of the Rubenists was signalled when Antoine Watteau's The Embarkation for Cythera was accepted as his reception piece by the French Academy in 1717. (died 1690), Director of the Academy, and their heroes were Raphael, the Carracci, and Poussin himself,
In 1672, Charles Le Brun, Chancellor of the French Academy, attempted to halt the argument by stating officially that "the function of colour is to satisfy the eyes, whereas drawing satisfies the mind."
Resolution
thumb|right|300px|Watteau's [[The Embarkation for Cythera, 1717.]]
A success for the Rubenists was achieved when Roger de Piles was elected a member (as an amateur) of the French Academy in 1699, and the final signal that the Rubenists had won came when Antoine Watteau's The Embarkation for Cythera was accepted as his reception piece by the Academy in 1717. While this acknowledged Watteau as the originator of that genre, and was a significant mark of acceptance both of him and his style of painting, it also prevented him being recognised as a history painter, the highest class of painter, and the only one from which the academy's professors were drawn. Charles-Antoine Coypel, the son of its then director, tellingly said: "The charming paintings of this gracious painter would be a bad guide for whoever wished to paint the Acts of the Apostles."
Watteau is considered the greatest of the Rubenist artists. Other important Rubenists include François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin benefited from the newfound interest in still-life and genre painting.
Significance
The debate and the overlapping development of the Rococo in eighteenth century France have been seen as a form of revival. Michael Levey has pointed out that it was during the seventeenth century that the new categories of genre, landscape and still life had become established with their emphasis on the observation of nature, and therefore the arguments of the Rubenists amounted to a revival of existing traditions of naturalism and a call for a greater discipline in painting rather than representing an attitude of general licence or laissez-faire as is sometimes assumed.