- Museum number
- Oo,6.108
- Description
-
Wooded landscape; two figures on the left, another on a road which passes beneath trees. c.1640-5
Pen and brown ink, brown wash
Verso: Same subject (traced through from recto)
Pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1640-1645 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 312 millimetres
-
Width: 218 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- This sheet is an example of Claude's free use of the brush, here combined with similarly loose and gestural penlines. This combination is also observable in a number of Claude's drawings in the BM, for example Oo,6.72, see M. Roethlisberger, 1968, no. 483, p. 202. The effect is atmospheric with the dark silhouettes of the two figures underneath the trees adding interest to the composition. The verso shows Claude tracing through the outlines of the composition in pen and in this respect it is among several examples in the BM where Claude traced the main outlines of the recto to the verso, presumably to see how the composition looked in reverse. See Oo,7.221 for an explanation of the method.
Marcel Roethlisberger pointed out that this type of composition dominated by the foliage of trees recalls the handful of surviving paintings by Claude's only known student, Angeluccio. The latter died young, leaving only about 25 paintings and 35 drawings, all dated 1640-45. For instance, the painting "Rural Scene" dated around 1640 in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome, is very close to this present sheet. It may be worth considering whether or not this drawing is actually by Angeluccio rather than Claude.
Lit.: A.M. Hind, 'Catalogue of the Drawings of Claude Lorrain preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings', London, 1926, no. 57, p. 6; M. Roethlisberger, 'Claude Lorrain: The drawings catalog', 2 vols, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968, no. 482, pp. 202-203; I. Seligman, 'Lines of Thought', London, 2016, no. 70, p. 115.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1978/9 Oct-Jan, Louvre, 'Claude Lorrain', no. 44
2016 3 Sep - 6 Nov, Poole Museum, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 70 (double sided)
2017 1 Jan - 25 Feb, The Brynmor Jones Library Art Gallery, University of Hull, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 70 (double sided)
2017 12 Mar - 5 May, Ulster Museum, Belfast, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 70 (double sided)
2017 May - Sep, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 70 (double sided)
2017-2018 Oct - Jan, RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 'Lines of thought: Drawing from Michelangelo to now', no. 70 (double sided)
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Oo,6.108