Landscape and the Visual Arts, Claude Lorrain
What were Claude's contributions to an ideal landscape?Claude, was born Claude Gellee who was also known by his fictitious name Le Lorraine or as Claude Lorrain, in the duchy of Lorraine (from which he derived his name) in 1604 (1). He was a French artist in the seventeenth century, who spent most of his working life in Italy. He was one of the greatest masters of classical landscape paintings. It is noted that, he was the first painter to acquire a huge reputation as a landscape artist and his popularity has remained undimmed ever since. His principal teacher, an Italian painter called Agostino Tassi, taught him the basics of perspective, landscape and seascape art (2). By 1633 Claude had found his definitive landscape style and joined Rome's Accademia di San Luca. He influenced landscape painting and garden design, though his paintings and drawings, over one thousand three hundred of them.Claude was distinguished from other artists in this period, and the reasons for that were his contributions to an ideal landscape. He achieved such an acclaim because he was very skilful with the manner in which he dealt with the light. He could superbly show brilliant light and tones in his paintings, as he learnt to represent
In fact the main subjects in his work are the landscapes themselves, everything else in the composition stay as accessories. It is clearly evident that Turner's painting 'Rocky Bay with Figures, was influenced by Claude and furthermore, he learnt how to master the light through Claude's absolute genius (12). In the second phase, which began after 1640, his paintings became more tranquil, bathed in a warm even light. He was also particularly influential, not only during his lifetime, but especially in England from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. They thought landscapes to be as pretty as Claude's and to compliment the scenery, they used Claude glasses. When people travelled, they noticed real landscapes, this reminded them of Claude's paintings. One of Thomas Gainsborough's greatest pieces of work 'The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire' (which is one half of a pair) was worked in Claude's style. In the first phase, Claude's main focus was always his landscapes and light, which unified his compositions and often featured a slanting light.
Common topics in this essay:
Isaac Rebekah,
San Luca,
Greece Rome,
Apollo Pan,
Saint Ursula,
France Italy,
Museum London,
Richard Wilson,
Claude Lorrain,
Claude Arcadian,
painted idealised,
claude's paintings,
painting below,
contributions ideal landscape,
ancient gods,
'golden mean',
landscape painting,
idealised scenes,
western art,
painting depth,
characteristically sun painting,
painted idealised scenes,
sun painting depth,
seventeenth century,
|
Acceptance Essays
