- Museum number
- 1957,1214.199
- Description
-
Mount Parnassus or Mount Helicon with Apollo and the Muses, record of painting in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts from the Liber Veritatis; figures sitting on slope at right, beyond Pegasus and a temple
Pen and brown ink, and brown and grey-brown wash, heightened with white, on blue paper
- Production date
- 1681
- Dimensions
-
Height: 191 millimetres
-
Width: 251 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See 1957,1214.6 for information on the Liber Veritatis.
This is one of the latest painting that Claude completed for Prince Colonna (on whom see inv. no. 1957,1214.164) and the last in the 'Liber' in which he is named as patron (LV 195 and the Ashmolean's 'Ascanius and the stag' were also painted for him). Though the paintingt was not completed until 1681, work for it appears to have been set in motion in 1674 when Claude made five preparatory studies for the scene for which see Roethlisberger 1968, no. 1070ff. There is another drawing for the composition now at the Teyler Museum (inv. no. S 18; Roethlisberger 1968, no. 1113) though elements of this were still further developed prior to the painting’s completion such as the addition of swans. The painting is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (see inv. no. 12.1050; canvas, 98 x 136.5 cm; Roethlisberger 1986, no. 271). Unfortunately, Claude’s deteriorating health is reflected in the drawing's lack of precision. Unsurprisingly, it displays a debt to several earlier works recorded in the 'Liber' including nos. 126, 164 and 182.
Lit: M. Roethlisberger, 'Claude Lorrain, The Paintings', London 1961, LV193, pp. 451–454; M. Roethlisberger, ‘Claude Lorrain. The Drawings’, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1968, no. 1114; M. Kitson, ‘Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis’, London 1978, no. 193; M. Roethlisberger, ‘Tout l’œuvre peint de Claude Lorrain’, Paris, 1986, no. 271; H. Wine, in exhib. cat., London, National Gallery, 'Claude. The Poetic Landscape', 1994, no. 76
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1977 BM, Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis
1994 Jan-Apr, London, National Gallery, 'Claude. The Poetic Landscape'
- Acquisition date
- 1957
- Acquisition notes
- Accepted by H M Government in lieu of tax on the estate of the 9th Duke of Devonshire.
See M. Kitson's 'Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis', pp. 28-9, for a full account of the provenance of the sketch-book.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1957,1214.199
