Wooded Landscape with a Brook

This work Wooded Landscape with a Brook is a Lorrain’s very early landscape painting which contains figures alluding narratives in a perfect aerial perspective and classical composition using a gradual transition of light colors changing subtly from brown foreground, green middle ground and to panoramic blue background.
The entire space is filled with scattered sunlight, which conveys a deep sense of silence and invites viewers into the world of meditation. This work is considered to have been painted based on a real landscape of a countryside (Campania region) near Rome. As this work is regarded as a landscape by a rigorous depiction of nature, it may also be viewed that it is not the typical style of Lorrain, who artificially composes poetic and ideal landscapes. However, just like in his well-known drawings, the accurate depictions of nature can also be seen in his oil paintings like this work. The paintings and drawings that depict the same site as this work include the large drawing by the Dutch painter, Bartholomeus Breenbergh (Louvre Museum), whose mutual relationship with Lorrain is notable. Thus, it is no doubt that this site was popular for sketching among painters. The foliage, lush bushes and shrubs on the banks of the river, and figures delicately depicted in this painting exhibit his own unique characteristics.
Estimating from the figures in this painting, the scene depicted is probably taken from one of the stories in ancient Greek mythology—Cupid and Psyche: it is a tale that “Love” (Cupid) longs for “Soul” (Psyche).
The tale narrates, “Cupid falls in love with a beautiful Queen Psyche, and has her carried off to his palace in a secret valley where Psyche gets married to Cupid incarnate. As the couple always meets in darkness, Psyche does not know a true identity of Cupid. One night, however, when Cupid falls asleep, she sees his appearance. Cupid gets furious and flies away, and the beautiful palace also disappears. Then, Psyche begins to wander the earth . . .”
In the painting, a woman sitting in the center of the foreground is Psyche. It is the scene that Psyche is being consoled by peasants when she who was abandoned by Cupid is deeply lost in grief. This riverside where gives an impression of being enclosed is reminiscent of the valley where has a phantom palace in the tale of Cupid and Psyche.