Diana and Her Nymphs in a Landscape

Diana and her nymphs rest and bathe after the hunt, their catch guarded by a loyal hound, in an idealized landscape with classical ruins. As in his many other landscapes, Laurent de La Hyre rendered a romantic view of a river valley, a poetic setting for a nostalgic theme. Drawing from the work of Nicolas Poussin, La Hyre employed a classical composition with an orderly recession into space framed by trees. To Poussin's antiquarian interests, La Hyre added Claude Lorrain's limpid light effects. Philippe de La Hyre, Laurent's eldest son, summed up his father's academic approach: "His subjects were placed in a landscape or architectural setting, which he treated with perfection according to all the rules of perspective, of which he had made a special study. Thus his works were in demand, and he himself was held in high esteem."