drawing
- Museum number
- Oo,6.8
- Description
-
The abduction of Helen from Sparta, one of a set of eight sketches representing scenes from the story of Paris; view on a quay side, with Helen about to get on a rowing boat led by Paris. c.1635-45
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, over graphite
- Production date
- 1635-1645 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 93 millimetres
-
Width: 124 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is number 7 in a series of eight drawings of Paris, for which see the commentary for Oo,6.2.
The present scene depicts Paris's Abduction of Helen. Like the other drawings in this series, the pen work is loose and the wash is applied in broad strokes. The figures are merely suggested and the anatomy not fully realised, making it clear the the scene was conceived at speed. It was presumably once part of a larger sheet as in the case with Oo,6.3 and Oo,6.7.
Lit.: A.M. Hind, 'Catalogue of the Drawings of Claude Lorrain preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings', London, 1926, no. 246; M. Roethlisberger, 'Claude Lorrain: The drawings catalog', 2 vols, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968, no. 374.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Oo,6.8
