Claude Lorrain

Introduction
Life and works
Stylistic development
Achievement as a draftsman

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Claude Lorrain: Ulysses Returns Chryseis to Her Father

Claude Lorrain: Pastoral Landscape with a Mill

At a Glance

Claude Lorrain summary

Quizzes

Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society

Ultimate Art Quiz

Close-up of a palette held by a man. Mixing paint, painting, color mixing.

Artists, Painters, & Architects

Tate Modern extension Switch House, London, England. (Tavatnik, museums). Photo dated 2017.

Can You Match These Lesser-Known Paintings to Their Artists?

"The Birth of Venus," tempera on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485; in the Uffizi, Florence.

Who Painted the Most Expensive Paintings in the World?

Related Questions

Did Claude Lorrain marry or have children?
How did Adam Elsheimer influence Claude Lorrain’s small paintings on copper?
How did Agostino Tassi influence Claude Lorrain’s art?
How did Claude Lorrain become famous in the early 1630s?
How did Claude Lorrain become successful despite limited formal education?
How did Claude Lorrain help raise the status of landscape painting in the 17th century?
How did Claude Lorrain transform coastal scenes into idealized seaports?
How did Claude Lorrain use atmospheric perspective to create depth?
How did Claude Lorrain use drawings to study nature?
How did Claude Lorrain work with patrons who commissioned paintings?
How did Claude Lorrain’s ideal landscapes differ from Dutch landscape paintings of the same period?
How did Claude Lorrain’s paintings change during the 1650s and 1660s?
How did Claude Lorrain’s style change around 1640?
How did Domenichino influence Claude Lorrain’s later landscape paintings?
How did Dutch and Flemish artists influence Claude Lorrain’s early work?
How did J.M.W. Turner honor Claude Lorrain in his Liber Studiorum?
How did the Liber Veritatis help protect Claude Lorrain’s paintings from forgery?
How many paintings, drawings, and etchings by Claude Lorrain survive?
How much formal schooling did Claude Lorrain receive?
Was Claude Lorrain trained as a pastry cook before becoming an artist?
What features characterize Claude Lorrain’s early landscape paintings?
What information did Claude Lorrain record in the Liber Veritatis?
What is Claude Lorrain’s earliest surviving painting?
What is a Claude Lorrain seaport painting like?
What is the Liber Veritatis created by Claude Lorrain?
What kinds of subjects appear in Claude Lorrain’s landscape drawings?
What makes Landscape: The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah important in Claude Lorrain’s career?
What role did Classical ruins play in Claude Lorrain’s landscapes?
What was Claude Lorrain’s birth name?
What was Claude Lorrain’s relationship with Nicolas Poussin?
What work did Claude Lorrain do with Claude Deruet in Nancy?
When did Claude Lorrain begin painting landscapes?
Where did Claude Lorrain spend most of his artistic career?
Where is Claude Lorrain’s Liber Veritatis kept?
Which Claude Lorrain painting first used the visible sun to illuminate an entire picture?
Which later English artist was strongly influenced by Claude Lorrain?
Which literary sources inspired the subjects of Claude Lorrain’s paintings?
Which powerful patrons commissioned paintings from Claude Lorrain?
Who taught Claude Lorrain landscape painting in Rome?
Who was Agnese, Claude Lorrain’s daughter?
Why are the bending trees important in Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia?
Why did Claude Lorrain create the Liber Veritatis?
Why did Claude Lorrain include biblical, mythological, and pastoral figures in his landscapes?
Why did Claude Lorrain return to Nancy in 1625?
Why did Claude Lorrain’s artistic production slow later in his career?
Why were dawn and evening important in Claude Lorrain’s paintings?
Why is Edvard Munch so famous?
What was the tragedy of Edvard Munch?
What is Edvard Munch most known for?
What was the impact of Edvard Munch’s work on modern art?
Why is Francisco Goya famous?
What was Claude Monet’s early life like?
Where was Claude Monet educated?
Why is Claude Monet famous?
How did Claude Monet influence others?
What are some of Picasso’s most famous pieces?

Visual Arts Painting Painters

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External Websites

Web Gallery of Art - Biography of Claude Lorrain
Art Encyclopedia - Biography of Claude Lorrain

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Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Claude Lorrain - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Claude Lorrain

French artist

Also known as: Claude, Claude Gellée

Written by

Michael William Lely Kitson

Director of Studies, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 1986–92. Author of The Art of Claude Lorrain and others.

Michael William Lely Kitson

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

History

Claude Lorrain (born 1600, Chamagne, France—died Nov. 23, 1682, Rome [Italy]) was a French artist best known for, and one of the greatest masters of, ideal landscape painting, an art form that seeks to present a view of nature more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. The quality of that beauty is governed by Classical concepts, and the landscape often contains Classical ruins and pastoral figures in Classical dress. The source of inspiration is the...

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