Claude Lorrain (originally Claude Gelée).

Born: 1600, Chamagne, France.

Claude Lorrain later moved to Rome.

Studied under the Italian painter, Agostino Tassi. In 1627 Lorrain returned to Rome. Here, two landscapes made for Cardinal Bentivoglio earned him the patronage of Pope Urban VIII. From about 1637 he rapidly achieved fame as a painter of landscapes and seascapes. He apparently befriended his fellow Frenchman Nicolas Poussin; together they would travel the Roman Campagna, sketching landscapes. 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. By report, he often engaged other artists to paint the figures for him, including Courtois and Filippo Lauri. He remarked to those purchasing his pictures that he sold them the landscape; the figures were gratis.

In the 1630s Claude began compiling his "Liber Veritatis", Book of Truth.

Claude Lorrain Died: Rome, November 23, 1682.



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