The Light of the Campagna

Claude Gellée (1604/05–1682), who is known as Claude Lorrain or simply Claude, was one of the most important landscape artists of the 17th century. Although he was born in France, Claude spent most of his life in Rome. As a painter and draughtsman, he developed a concept of ideal landscape that continued to influence landscape painters internationally until well into the 19th century.

The exhibition in the Hubertus Wald Forum presents 90 pen and brush drawings by Claude Lorrain from the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum in London. Most of the works have come from the prestigious collections of Sir Richard Payne Knight and the Dukes of Devonshire. These highly impressive drawings range from freely executed nature studies done on sketching expeditions in the Roman Campagna to preparatory designs for paintings, and also include a selection of works from the Liber Veritatis, an album of masterful drawings the artist made in order to record the compositions of his finished paintings.

Claude’s drawings are supplemented by 20 of his etchings from the holdings of the Kupferstichkabinett (Department of Prints and Drawings) and selected examples of the 300 etchings with mezzotint that were produced in the late 18th century by the Englishman Richard Earlom after drawings by Claude.

In addition to the Lorrain exhibition, we will be showing a Horst Janssen exhibition from our own collections until January 14, 2018 with the title Horst Janssen. Hommage à Claude in the Harzen-Cabinet.

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