Claude Lorrain Paintings

Claude Lorrain, born Claude Gellée and sometimes known simply as Claude in English, was a French painter, draughtsman, and engraver of the Baroque era who achieved fame for his luminous landscapes. He was born in 1600 in the Duchy of Lorraine (from which he later adopted his surname) but spent most of his life in Italy, primarily in Rome.

Lorrain's early life is somewhat obscure, but it is believed that after being orphaned at age 12, he went to live with his older brother, a wood engraver, in Freiburg im Breisgau. Around this time, Lorrain may have worked as a pastry cook, which was a common occupation for young artists and apprentices of the era. He traveled to Italy around 1612, where he would remain for the majority of his life. In Rome, he worked in the studios of several artists including Agostino Tassi, who specialized in perspective and landscape painting and had a profound influence on Lorrain's development as an artist.

Claude Lorrain is best known for his poetic rendering of the Roman countryside, imbuing it with a sense of idealized beauty and harmony. His landscapes are characterized by a warm, golden light and are often populated with classical architecture or ruins and small figures that give a sense of scale and narrative to the scenes. His approach to landscape painting was innovative, and he is often credited with creating and popularizing the concept of the 'ideal' landscape, which would have a significant influence on landscape painting in Europe, particularly in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

In addition to his paintings, Lorrain was also a prolific draughtsman, and his drawings are highly valued for their clarity, delicacy, and compositional skill. He kept a record of his paintings in a book known as the 'Liber Veritatis' (Book of Truth), which included drawings of his completed works and served as a catalogue of his art as well as a tool to protect against forgeries.

Claude Lorrain's influence extended far beyond his lifetime. His landscapes shaped the work of later artists such as Nicolas Poussin and had a lasting impact on the classical landscape tradition, influencing English landscape gardeners as well as Romantic and Hudson River School painters. Lorrain died in Rome on November 23, 1682, leaving behind a legacy that would cement him as one of the foundational figures in Western landscape painting.