Claude Lorrain: 12 works

'Claude Lorrain (c. 1600-1682) was a French painter who worked primarily in Italy and is well known for his Baroque style landscapes. He produced this signed oil painting while in Italy.'

'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.'

'Like his near-contemporary Nicolas Poussin, Claude spent most of his life in Rome, where his art was strongly inspired by the Roman campagna, or countryside. He probably made this drawing as a study for a painting that was commissioned by the French ambassador in Rome and is now in a private collection.'

'The juxtaposition of cliffs and river is frequently found in Chinese landscape painting, but Claude Gellée's composition is topographically more accurate than a typical Chinese landscape painting.'

'He drew this study from nature, rather than composing it in the studio, and he may have used it in preparing a painting. According to a German painter colleague, Joachim von Sandrart, Tivoli played a role in Claude's decision to paint en plein air (outdoors) rather than only in the studio: "(I)n Tivoli, in the wild rocks at the famous cascade ... he found me painting from life and saw that I painted many works from nature itself, making nothing from imagination; this pleased himself so much that he applied himself eagerly to adopting the same method."'

'The maritime theme also had a deeper resonance for Claude's contemporaries, as in art criticism, the abduction of Europa was compared to a ship leaving shore. French by birth, and working in Rome, Claude often went into the countryside to do studies of nature.'

'He had learned perspective in Naples and figurative painting in Rome, where he also lived beginning in 1627, painting mainly for the local aristocracy. His pictures quickly earned renown throughout Europe, especially for his elevation of the sun as visible source of illumination to the status of principal subject in pictures flooded with warm light, and his free combination of coastal landscapes with Roman villas, ancient monuments, and mythological and pastoral scenes.'

'The castle in this drawing is the famous La Crescenza, which often features in Claude's pictures, and following his example later artists (such as Corot) were also fond of painting it.'

'For Claude Lorrain, one of the most important aspects of his adopted city of Rome was its surrounding countryside, the Campagna, which the artist studied, sketched, and painted all his life. His evocative Classical landscapes were sought after by papal patrons as well as by aristocrats and royalty throughout Europe.'

'In this painting Claude Lorraine has completely marginalized the biblical subject.'

'Pentimenti over the mountain peak at left show that Claude lowered its height to open the upper third of the sheet to sky. His spontaneity in rendering this scene suggests that it was probably sketched on the spot.'

'This drawing is unique in his work in showing large-scale figures accompanied by inscriptions.'