Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain, known also as Claude, was a French landscape painter who lived from circa 1604/1605 to 1682. He was associated with the Baroque art movement. Born Claude Gellée, he became known as Claude Lorrain, or rather, Claude of the Lorrain. Lorrain was an independent state in what later became northeast France.
Lorrain was born into a poor family in Chamagne in northern France. After the death of his parents when he was twelve, he moved in with his older brother in Freiburg, Germany. His brother was an artist and was his first art teacher.
Lorrain moved to Italy and apprenticed for several artists, including Agostino Tassi. Tassi was a landscape painter, though he is mostly remembered for his high-profile court case involving the artist, Artemisia Gentileschi. In Tassi’s studio, Lorrain found himself grinding pigments for his paint, and doing chores around the house. Early in his career, Claude Lorrain was known for his fresco work. Unfortunately, all of his fresco pieces are lost today.
Lorrain is one of the earliest artists to devote the subject of his work to landscapes. During this period, landscapes were just finally becoming respectable subjects for art. Interestingly, he was also one of the first western artists to depict the sun in his work. Although Lorrain often depicted people in his art, the landscape was really the subject he was most interested in. Some, including himself, believed that was because he was actually not that skilled at depicting people. Lorrain was known to have said that he charged for his landscapes but gave the figures for free.
In Italy, Lorrain’s work was highly respected and sought after. He made a good living off of commissions working for prestigious patrons, including the King of Spain, Cardinal Bentivoglio, and Pope Urban VIII.
Due to his large collection of sketches and preliminary paintings, a lot is known today about his work methodology. He sketched his scenes on the spot, preferring to work either at dawn or dusk. He created several oil studies of his work, and then spent time creating his master rendition in his studio. He even catalogued his work in a book he affectionately titled the Liber Veritatis, or The Book of Truth. Through his paintings, we see the myths of Europe as part of the landscape. He intertwined the myths gracefully into portscapes, cityscapes, ruins, rocks, cliffs, and forests, among other scenes.
Lorrain spent most of the remainder of his life in Italy which is where he created all of his most famous works. This is why he was long associated with the Roman School of art that was inspired by the Northern Mannerism movement. He was a just influence for many future artists, including John William Casilear and Konstantin Bogaevsky.
Lorrain was known as a kind man, generous and patient with his students and very hard working. He never married, but did adopt a daughter, Agnese, who may have actually been his natural daughter from a servant. Curiously, he never learned to read or write. Lorrain died in 1682 when he was about 77 to 78 years old after suffering from gout for many years.
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