Claude Lorrain - Biography, Critical assessment and legacy, Selected works

Landscape painter, born in Chamagne, Lorraine region, NE France. He studied with various Italian painters, then settled in Rome (1627). He painted about 400 landscapes, including several with biblical or Classical themes, such as ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ (1656, Frick Collection, New York City). His compositions, if rather formal, are always graceful and well considered, and his colour is singularly mellow and harmonious. He also produced many drawings and etchings.

Claude Lorrain (Lorraine, c. 1600–Rome, November 23, 1682), a French artist of the Baroque era who was active in Italy, is admired for his achievements in landscape painting.

Biography

Early years

Lorrain was born into poverty in the village of Chamagne, Vosges in Lorraine.

Mature works

In 1627 Lorrain returned to Rome. Though both have been called landscape painters, in Poussin the landscape is a background to the figures; where as for Lorrain, despite figures in one corner of the canvas, the true subjects are the land, the sea, and the air.

In order to avoid repetition of subjects, and also to expose the many spurious copies of his works, he made tinted outline drawings (in six paper books prepared for this purpose) of all those pictures sent to different countries; This valuable work, engraved and published, has always been highly esteemed by students of the art of landscape.

Critical assessment and legacy

In Rome, not until the mid-17th century, were landscapes deemed fit for serious painting. but not until Annibale Carracci and his pupil Domenichino do we see landscape become the focus of a canvas by a major Italian artist. The second quality had less public patronage in Counter-Reformation Rome, which prized subjects worthy of "high painting," typically religious or mythic scenes.

In this matter of the importance of landscape, Lorrain was prescient.

Lorrain was described as kind to his pupils and hard-working;

Selected works

Landscape with Merchants (The Shipwreck) (1630) - National Gallery, Washington, D.C. Landscape with Goatherd (1636) - National Gallery, London The Ford (1636) - Metropolitan Museum, NY) Port with Villa Medici (1637) - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Finding of Moses (1638) - Oil on canvas, 209 x 138 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid Pastoral Landscape, (1638) Minneapolis Institute of Arts Seaport (1639) - National Gallery, London Seaport at Sunset (Odysseus) (1639) - Oil on canvas, 119 x 150 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris View of Campagna (c. 1639) - Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 135.9 cm, Royal Collections Embarkation of Saint Paula Romana at Ostia (1639) - Oil on canvas, 211 x 145 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid The Embarkation of St. Ursula (1641) - National Gallery, London Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba (1641) - National Gallery, London) The Disembarkation of Cleopatra at Tarsus (1642) - oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris. The Disembarkation of Cleopatra at Tarsus (1642-43) - Oil on canvas, 119 x 170 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris The Trojan Women Setting Fire to their Fleet - (Metropolitan Museum, NY). Brook and Two Bridges - Oil on canvas, 74 x 58 cm, Voyage of Jacob The Angel's Visit View of the Church Santa Trinità Dei Monti - drawing, Hermitage, St. Petersburg Seaport with Castle - Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. View of Tivoli at Sunset (1644) - San Francisco Museum of Art Mercury Stealing Apollo's Oxen (1645) - Oil on canvas, 55 x 45 cm, Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome Landscape with Cephalus and Procris reunited by Diana (1645) - Oil on canvas, 102 x 132 cm, National Gallery, London The Judgement of Paris (1645-46) - National Gallery of Art at Washington D.C. Sunrise (1646-47) - Metropolitan Museum, New York Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah (1648) - National Gallery, London Landscape with Paris and Oenone (1648) - Oil on canvas, 119 x 150 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris View of La Crescenza (1648-50) - Oil on canvas, 38.7 x 58.1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Landscape with Dancing Figures (The Mill) (1648) - Oil on canvas, 150,6 x 197,8 cm, Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome View of La Crescenza (1648-50) Metropolitan Museum, New York The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1651 or 1661) - Oil on canvas, 113 x 157cm, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 'Landscape with Acis and Galatea (1657) - Oil on canvas, 100 x 135 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden Landscape with Apollo and Mercury (1660) - Oil on canvas, 74,5 x 110,5 cm, Wallace Collection, London Landscape with a dance (The Marriage of Isaac and Rebeccah (1663) - Drawing Coast Scene with the Rape of Europa (1667) - Oil on canvas, 134,6 x 101,6 cm, Royal Collection, London The Expulsion of Hagar (1668) - Oil on canvas, 107 x 140 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich Seaport (1674) - Oil on canvas, 72 x 96 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Silvia (1682) - Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.