Landscape with Figures Wading Through a Stream

The Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum has a good deal of work by French artists from the 17th and 18th century in its collection. One of them is Claude Lorrain, a famous painter of idealized lanscapes and mythological themes. He is a representative of Classicism, which in 17th century France was important. Here, the idyllic landscape shows an idealised picture of the area around Rome, the Campagna, where Claude travelled frequently; he recorded his impressions of the area in a large number of drawings. He often used these drawings for the composition of his paintings. Unlike many of the other paintings, no nature study or preliminary sketch can be connected to it. Nor does it appear in his 'Liber Veritatis', a book with drawings of his own paintings.