|
|
Claude Gellée, better
known as Claude Lorrain, was born in Chamagne, France (the Duchy of Lorraine)
in 1600, the third of five sons. The primary source of information on
Claude’s early life comes from his two biographers, Joachim von Sandrart
and Filippo Baldinucci, both of whom knew Claude during his lifetime.
These accounts can be found in Teutsche Academie (published in Nuremberg
in 1675) and in Notizie de'Professori del Disegno (published in Florence
in 1728) respectively. Claude Lorrain is remembered today as an etcher,
a draftsman, and a painter, though he began as an apprentice to a pastry
cook. It was to continue learning the trade of pastry-making that Lorrain
first went to Rome, however, he soon discovered his love of art while working
as a domestic for the Italian painter, Agostino Tassi. In this respect,
he also ground the colors needed to make the paints, cleaned Tassi’s brushes
and palettes, and, with the master’s consent, soon began to learn the art
of drawing and the science of perspective. After a few years of his
pseudo-apprenticeship to Tassi, Claude Lorrain established himself as an
independent artist. Afterwards, he would live and work in Rome for
the majority of his adult life.
Lorrain’s decision to move to Rome would influence his future life and work. Russell states, "One suspects that Claude might have been a quite different artist had he not chosen to live in Rome, because Rome as a cultural and indeed a physical environment is so deeply imbedded in his art. No aspect of the city was more important for his work than the surrounding countryside, the Campagna, which he drew (and drew from for his paintings) all his life" (Russell 54). In Rome, Lorrain was influenced by several different ideas that he found within the city, specifically the visual heritage, its Renaissance painting and classical literature, and the Roman Church. Rome’s visual heritage, from antiquity onward, was an important source of inspiration for the artist, though not his only one. This is because Lorrain was a "generalist" in his opinion of the past. He appreciated the classical structures and often studied them, but he did not concern himself with historical accuracy in his own depictions of those structures. Rather, in his architectural images, he combined what he actually saw with those things that he envisioned in his mind. He was also influenced by the Renaissance paintings, specifically those works by Raphael and his School, as well as by classical literature, ancient myths, and epic poetry (which he read in French and Italian translations, as he did not know Latin). Finally, the Roman Church also played a role in Lorrain's classical ideals and opinions. Russell believes that it is the Church's philosophy that most closely resembles Lorrain's concept of nature. She states, "Almost without exception, the world of his paintings is one in which order and tranquility prevail, where men and animals perform no labor but rather exist peacefully in beautiful pastoral settings which are blessed with always clement weather" (Russell 57).
There are no known works by Lorrain before 1630, though his reputation as a remarkable landscape and seascape painter was firmly established by the end of the decade. He kept a personal record of his paintings (approximately 195 of them) through drawings executed in pen, that were collected together in his Liber Veritatis (c. 1635; London, British Museum). On the reverse of the drawings, Claude detailed each with the name of the patron or the town or country of destination, the date, and his signature. This was meant to safeguard his works against copies and fraud.
Claude Lorrain is best known to us today for his landscapes and seascapes. He is considered a master of ideal landscape painting, "an art form that seeks to present a view of nature more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. The quality of that beauty is governed by classical concepts, and the landscape often contains classical ruins and pastoral figures in classical dress" (Encyclopædia Britannica). Although not in any way the inventor of this genre of landscape painting, Lorrain added an interesting variation through his use of light as both an additive and a unifying feature. This was particularly unique because he not only used the sun as the source of light for the painting, but also depicted it dramatically within the work itself (whether completely visible or partially hidden by other objects). Amongst his studies, Claude frequently observed atmospheric perspective in his search for accuracy in this area. Oftentimes, in pairs of paintings (of which a little over a hundred works in his oeuvre were made as pairs), Lorrain would use a sunrise in one and a sunset in the other, so that the light could play one painting off the other and join them even further than their subject matter. In addition, the term "ideal" landscape can be used literally as well, as none of the negative aspects of nature are ever depicted within his paintings (such as storms and lightning). "Claude's landscapes are sublime. Every element is perfectly balanced. The momentary light becomes eternity in a marvelous fusion of color and substance. His handling of space is masterly. There is no conflict between form and background, theme and setting. Everything becomes vision in the strongest sense" (Cotte 59). Claude's subjects within the landscape are a necessary part of the work and are needed to understand the entire painting. The figures are often the source of debate on whether they are there as an integral part of the composition or whether they serve merely to boost the low esteem of landscape painting (by elevating it to a historical or Biblical scene, the highest level). Rothlisberger states, "Contrary to common belief, Claude's figures are not simply an embellishment, nor are they added a posteriori; rather, the subject is the primordial element, from which the entire composition is conceived and by which it has to be understood. All of Claude's pictures contain figures, and they provide the key to the meaning of the landscapes" (Rothlisberger 23).
It is in examining his wide-range of
works - here separated chronologically - that one is able to best understand
the various classicising elements and the specific details stated above
that continue to define his paintings.
Paintings Before 1644
|
Landscape
with the Finding of Moses
|
This painting was the first of four large upright works painted in 1639 and 1640 for King Philip IV of Spain to hang in the Landscape Gallery of his newly constructed palace, the Buen Retiro, on the outskirts of Madrid. These paintings are considered to be the masterpieces of Claude's early artistic phase and provided a nice boost to his career. The vertical element is used here by Lorrain for the first time, and would be used only occasionally afterwards - therefore, it is thought that this specific quality may have been requested in the painting's commission. There is no image of an actual sun here, though the sky is bright at the horizon and blue above. The water remains rather colorless. On either side of the mill, a large town is visible in the background.
|
Port Scene
with the Embarkation of St. Ursula 1641 Oil on canvas, 113 x 149 cm National Gallery, London |
This work was made for Cardinal Fausto Poli, the administrator of the possessions of the Barberini (the flags of the ship at the center depict the Barberini coat of arms). Although the story of this martyred saint was popular during the Renaissance, it was less common during the Baroque. Indeed, this is the only painting that exists by Lorrain on this subject. St. Ursula is seen in yellow surrounded by her virgin entourage, who are dressed in blue, yellow, purple, and violet. The figures go almost without notice, as the primary focus of the painting is the blinding sunlight. The sun itself can be seen placed just above and to the right of the lighthouse in the background and tints the sky yellow at the horizon and blue above. The building to the left is thought to be Bramante's Tempietto of S. Pietro in Montorio, with some differences (an increase in size and a cupola right above the entablature). Because of this, the lefthand side of the painting seems heavier than the right.
Paintings Between 1644 and 1655
|
Landscape with
Dancing Figures (The Mill) 1648 Oil on canvas, 150,6 x 197,8 cm Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome |
|
Landscape
with Dancing Figures (detail) 1648 Oil on canvas Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome |
This is one of two almost identical original paintings of exactly the size size - one at the National Gallery in London (called TheMarriage of Isaac and Rebecca) and one at the Doria-Pamphili Gallery in Rome (often called The Mill). They are Lorrain's largest works up to this time, though he would continue to produce even larger ones in the following decade. The painting is suffused with broad daylight, and the sun itself cannot be seen. "The sunny and perfectly balanced composition, with its delicate colours, captures all the freshness of springtime. The intention behind the picture seems not so much to have been to represent the varied activities of the small figures dancing and enjoying themselves in the foreground, immersed in this luminous and crystalline atmosphere, as to produce an imaginary view that would create the impression of a higher reality, a perfect world that is more harmonious and balanced than the real one" (Web Gallery of Art).
|
Ulysses Returns
Chryseis to her Father 1648 Oil on canvas, 119 x 150 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
The work was inscribed for Roger du Plessis, seigneur de
Liancourt, a famous French art collector. This painting, along with
the Seaport with the Embarkation of Ulysses from the Phaeacians,
are the only two works by Lorrain illustrating literature by Homer.
It is believed that the subject was dictated by the patron himself, and this
particular work is the only known representation of the event. The
scene takes place at sunset, with the sun shown just slightly above and to
the right of the tower in the distant background. Unlike the yellow
and blue morning sun in the Port Scene with the Embarkation of St. Ursula,
this light is a soft gold that grows lighter above the horizon. "This
is perhaps Claude's most striking seaport owing to the bold placement of
the great ship in the center of the image and the dark relief into which
it is cast by the hidden sun. The ship thus becomes the prime protagonist
of the scene" (Russell 148).
Paintings After 1655
|
The Expulsion
of Hagar 1668 Oil on canvas, 107 x 140 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
This work is Lorrain's only depiction of this extremely common subject. Interestingly, Claude has implemented physical barriers that nicely separate the foreground from the distant vista. This is thought to be an artistic continuation of the theme of the expulsion of Hagar from her home to places unknown. In addition, the landscape actually mimics the shapes in the foreground (for example, the shape of Abraham's arm is seen again through the shape of the bridge and the distant river). The time of day follows the Biblical texts, with the scene taking place in the morning hours (shown, as in the St. Ursula painting, a yellow sky with blue above). The sun itself is in the process of rising, caught in its movement about one quarter of the way up. The figures include Abraham expelling Hagar and Ishmael while Sarah watches the scene from her location on the balcony of the building at the left, though they seem of little importance in comparison with the overwhelming landscape vista.
|
A Seaport
at Sunrise 1674 Oil on canvas, 72 x 96 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
This painting is usually thought to have been a reproduction of the previous original work, here made for Freiherr Franz von Mayer. To the right is an accurate depiction of the Arch of Titus (out of context from its usual location), and in a rare occurance, Lorrain has included the inscription at the top of the arch. The scene again takes place in the morning hours with a yellow sky at the horizon and a blue sky above. The sun, depicted just to the left of the center of the painting, sheds a pale glow on the busy action of the foreground as it continues its rise through the sky.
When Claude Lorrain died at the age
of eighty-two in 1682, he had been a painter for almost sixty-five years
and left a legacy of fifty-one etchings, almost twelve hundred drawings,
and nearly three hundred paintings. An anonymous writer in the catalogue
of an exhibition held at Doggett's Repository in Boston between circa 1820-1830
stated that Claude Lorrain "dipped his pencil in the rainbow and transferred
its magic hues, in all their endless variety of combination, to his canvass.
He gave to water the depth, its coolness, its lustre, and its transparency;
he represented the due gradations of the vapour in his distances; he distinguished
by characteristic touches the different hours of the day; and was the first,
and perhaps the last, who may be said to have painted air" (Russell 424).
Bibliography
Cotte, Sabine. Claude Lorrain: The Great Draughtsmen. George Braziller: New York, 1970.
"Claude Lorrain." Encyclopædia Britannica 2003
Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
11 Feb, 2003 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=24620>.
Rothlisberger, Marcel. Claude Lorrain: The Paintings. New Haven: Yake University Press, 1961.
Russell, H. Diane. Claude Lorrain: 1600-1682. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1982.
Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx. "Claude Lorrain." Web Gallery of Art. <http://gallery.euroweb.hu/welcome.html>.