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How did Claude Lorrainās paintings change during the 1650s and 1660s?
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Claude Lorrain
Ulysses Returns Chryseis to Her Father, oil on canvas by Claude Lorrain, c. 1644; in the Louvre, Paris. 119 Ć 150 cm.
During the 1650s and 1660s, Claude Lorrainās artistic style underwent a transition toward larger, more heroic, and eventually more solemn compositions.1
- 1650s: Claude produced paintings that were notably larger and more heroic in scale, such as The Sermon on the Mount.1
- 1660s: By the middle of this decade, his work entered its final phase, characterized by a restricted color range and cool, silvery tones. During this period, his figures became strangely elongated and less conventionally drawn. The landscapes of this era are described as solemn, mysterious, and radiating a sublime poetic feeling, exemplified by his masterpiece The Enchanted Castle.1
In this late phase, the chosen subjects began to define the mood and sometimes dictate the composition of the landscape itself.1