Harbour scene with a lighthouse

Claude Lorrain, born Claude Gellée, called le Lorrain in French and traditionally just Claude in English (c. 1600–1682), was a French painter, draughtsman and engraver of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in Italy, and is one of the earliest important artists, apart from his contemporaries in Dutch Golden Age painting, to concentrate on landscape painting. His landscapes are often turned into the more prestigious genre of history paintings by the addition of a few small figures, typically representing a scene from the bible or classical mythology.

By the end of the 1630s he was established as the leading landscapist in Italy, and enjoyed high prices for his work. These gradually became larger, but with fewer figures, more carefully painted, and produced at a lower rate. Almost all his painting was done in Italy; before the late 19th century he was regarded as a painter of the "Roman School". His patrons were also mostly Italian, but after his death he became very popular with English collectors, and the UK retains a high proportion of his works. 

Claude was a prolific creator of drawings in pen and very often monochrome watercolour "wash", usually brown but sometimes grey. His studies for paintings are of various degrees of finish, many clearly done before or during the process of painting, but others perhaps after that was complete. This was certainly the case for the last group, the 195 drawings recording finished paintings collected in his Liber Veritatis (now British Museum). He produced over 40 etchings, often simplified versions of paintings, mainly before 1642. These were till recently widely regarded as much less important than his drawings, though art collector and historian Andrew Brink has powerfully argued that not only do they match the mastery and execution of Claude's paintings, but are seminal to the establishment of 17th- and 18th-century aesthetics in England.

This etching, however, shows the other side of Claude - harbour scenes, which mostly date from the period 1630 to 1648. The paintings have always been admired for their mastery of light effects, together with the artist's command of perspective. Equally appealing is the rather fantastical architecture, which show Claude's familiarity with contemporary stage designs and mid 17th-century 'special effects'. This etching is based on a pen-and-ink drawing in the <em>Liber Veritatis</em>, its appearance being reversed in the printmaking process. The location of the 'master' painting which it records is unknown. The print depicts a massive classical portico on the right, while the lighthouse of the title is in the far distance. In the foreground, three loafing men look towards a boat casting off with five men aboard. The etching forms part of the Old Master print collection mounted in the so-called King George IV album, acquired by the Dominion Museum in 1910.

Sources:

Andrew Brink, <em>Ink and Light: The Influence of Claude Lorrain's Etchings on England</em> (Montreal, 2013)

British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=722912&partId=1&searchText=claude+harbour+lighthouse&page=1https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_det ails.aspx?objectId=1346089&partId=1&am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;am p;searchText=claude+lorrain+harbour+tower&page=1

Wikipedia, 'Claude Lorrain', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lorrain

Dr Mark Stocker     Curator, Historical International Art       April 2019