drawing;
sketch-book
- Museum number
- 1957,1214.90
- Description
-
Trees and rocks by a stream, record of painting in Williamstown, Massachusetts from the Liber Veritatis; on far shore two figures walking to left
Pen and brown ink and brown wash
- Production date
- 1644 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 196 millimetres
-
Width: 265 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See 1957,1214.6 for information on the Liber Veritatis.
The schematic manner in which the foreground is constructed and the sweeping washes for the midground and sky indicate that this drawing is either unfinished, or that it records only part of a larger composition. That it also lacks a complete inscription on the verso identifying the patron further supports this hypothesis. In this respect it compares with two other records in the 'Liber': Nos. 36 and 37. Kitson proposed that it in fact recorded a detail of the lower right of LV86: 'Landscape with Argus guarding Io' (for which see 1957,1214.92). Despite this proposal, the painting that it allegedly records, in the collection of the Earl of Leicester (Roethlisberger 1961, fig. 164) does not correspond exactly in details to either drawing.
Lit: M. Roethlisberger, 'Claude Lorrain, The Paintings', London 1961, LV84, p. 237; M. Roethlisberger, ‘Claude Lorrain. The Drawings’, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1968, no. 563; M. Kitson, ‘Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis’, London 1978, no. 84.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1977 BM, Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis
- 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
- 1957,1214.90