Around 1604/1605 -1682 · classical landscape, Rome and ideal light

Claude Lorrain orders ports, Roman countryside and ancient stories around a golden light that unifies architecture, figures, water and depth in the classical landscape.

Claude Gellée, called Claude Lorrain or simply Claude, was born in the Duchy of Lorraine around 1604 or 1605. At a very young age, he left his region, passed through Germany then reached Rome. He worked in the studio of Agostino Tassi, painter of landscapes and perspectives, visited Naples and Nancy, then settled permanently in Rome around 1628. In the Roman countryside, he drew trees, rivers, hills, ruins and variations of light, sometimes alongside Nicolas Poussin. These observations are not literally copied in the paintings. Claude combines them in the studio according to an ideal balance inspired by Annibale Carracci, Dominiquin and Adam Elsheimer. He emerges as an artist independent in the late 1620s and soon attracted a prestigious clientele, including Pope Urban VIII and Philip IV of Spain. Its ports at sunrise or sunset often open a perspective between palaces, ships and luminous horizon. In pastoral landscapes, large side trees, path, water and successive planes lead towards a bluing distance. Biblical or mythological subjects give a title and an action, but the figures remain small: in The Judgment of Paris, the ancient episode belongs to a much larger natural world. Around 1635 -1636, Claude begins the Liber Veritatis, an album of drawings reproducing his compositions completed with indications from sponsors. This book protects his invention against imitations and constitutes an exceptional catalog of his career. His paintings were particularly sought after in the 18th century by British travelers of the Grand Tour and profoundly influenced landscapers, gardeners and painters, up to Turner. Claude died in Rome in 1682. A faithful reproduction must preserve the light source, the hot-cold gradation, the side pushers, the small figures, the reflections and the calm rhythm which leads from the foreground to the horizon. The selection "Masterpieces of Claude Lorrain" notably compares The Judgment of Paris - Claude Lorrain and Port at sunrise sun - Claude Lorrain. His reading favors figures.

Claude constructs less a precise place than a luminous order: each tree, ship, column and figure regulates the movement of the gaze towards the distance.