Claude Lorrain - biographical facts

Seaport at sunset
Claude Gelee (1600-1682), was a celebrated French landscape painter who is best known as Claude Lorrain, after his birthplace. He was born in the village of Champagne, the third of his lowly parents' five children. Orphaned at 12, Lorrain was forced to gain a livelihood. At 16 he was in Rome. There he saw the landscapes of a Flemish painter, Godfrey Walls. He went to Naples and lived and studied with the Fleming for two years. On his return to Rome Claude Lorrain found employment in the studio of another painter; later he studied in Germany and in France. Dur­ing this time his genius was maturing, and the technical perfection and tonal harmony of his later work is marvelous. He is the most important classical landscape painter of the 17th century. The warm, rich color, and the reflections of light in sky, cloud and water are the finest qualities of Lorrain's work. In order that no fraudulent copies of his work should be sold, he made tinted outline drawings of his pictures. These drawings he signed with the name of the purchaser. He gathered them into book form and called them Libri di Verita. His finest works include Plagar in the Desert, Embarkation of St. Ursula, Seaport, Landing of Cleopatra at Tarsus, Flight into Egypt and The Village Dance.