Claude Lorrain: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The most famous artists who worked in the genre of landscape are Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Raphael Santi, Vincent Willem Van Gogh and others. One of the brightest representatives of classical landscape painters is the French artist Claude Lorrain.

Landscape genre

Landscape is a genre of fine art that reflects the beauty of nature and the surrounding world in its original form or changed, transformed by man. A special role in the canvases is played by perspective, composition, the way of depicting light and even air - all these aspects together create the general mood of the picture and allow you to feel the emotions that the painter wanted to convey to the viewer.

Biography. Early years

Claude Lorrain (real name - Gellet) was born around 1600, the exact date of birth is unknown. His birthplace is the Duchy of Lorraine in northeastern France, which is now considered part of the Grand Est region.

In the 1600s in France, the leading trend in art was classicism. The main feature of classicism is a return to imagesantiquity: balanced, often symmetrical composition, clear construction and clear forms of objects.

At an early age, Claude Lorrain lost both parents and, having received basic drawing skills from his brother, moved to Italy with his relatives at the age of 13.

Education and later life

In Italy, Lorren got a job as a servant in the house of the artist Agostino Tassi. Service at Tassi brought Claude Lorrain a lot of benefits: he taught the future artist many technical techniques of fine art. Further, Lorrain adopted the experience of Gottfried Wels.

Almost all his life the artist lived in Italy, only a few years (1625-1627) Claude Lorrain spent in Nancy (a city on the Moselle River), where he designed the vaults of churches and painted backgrounds for paintings by other artists to order.

Until the age of 42, Lorrain painted frescoes and was engaged in engravings. In the second half of his life, the artist focused on easel landscapes, ceasing to take orders for engravings and frescoes.

Landscapes by Claude Lorrain were bought by many famous personalities of that time - kings, princes, ambassadors and even the Pope.

The painter died at 82 in Rome.

Morning Painting

The painting by Claude Lorrain "Morning" was painted in 1666 and is currently an exhibit of the Moscow Hermitage. In it, the artist realizes his vision of one of the biblical scenes - the meeting of Jacob and Rachel.

The picture shows Jacob tending a flock of sheep and Laban's daughters. Since it is a landscape, most of the areathe surrounding reality occupies - tall trees in the center of the picture, an antique-style temple and the sky for almost two-thirds of the canvas. Three human figures are given only a small part from the bottom. They were not written by Lorrain himself, but by his colleague Philippe Lowry.

The picture is designed in soothing light colors - a typical classic landscape. Light plays a special role. The fact that the action takes place in the morning, you can guess, even without knowing the name. The sun itself is not visible, it is hidden behind the trees, but its rays break through the clouds.

Morning is not chosen by chance. It symbolizes the feelings that arise between Jacob and Rachel. All this makes "Morning" the most subtle and lyrical work of Claude Lorrain.

Abduction of Europe

The Rape of Europe painting by Claude Lorrain was painted in 1655. It illustrates a plot from ancient Greek mythology, which tells about Europa (daughter of King Agenor), who was kidnapped by the thunder god Zeus, turning into a white bull.

This myth was very popular during the Renaissance. Many artists of that time conveyed it in their own way: some set themselves the goal of conveying the scene of the abduction as accurately as possible - dynamic and exciting, while others were attracted by the surroundings.

Claude Lorrain belonged to the second category. As in the painting "Morning", people on this canvas are assigned an insignificant role. The basis is the image of nature and its unity with man.

When building a composition, the artist uses lines to hold the viewer's gaze and direct it to the right partspictures: to the mountains, the shore of the bay and the ships. The main colors are dark green and light blue, smoothly merging into each other. Foreground and background are inseparable, united into a single boundless space filled with air and light.

The canvas is imbued with deep lyrics and makes the viewer sadly thoughtful about beautiful and lofty things.

Landscape with penitent Mary Magdalene

Date of creation of the painting "Landscape with the Penitent Mary Magdalene" - 1637.

Mary Magdalene is one of the followers of Jesus in the New Testament, the first to see the resurrected Christ and his ascension to heaven. In Orthodoxy, Mary Magdalene is called the myrrh-bearing woman, and in Catholicism, a penitent harlot, because before meeting Jesus Christ she led a prodigal life, but thanks to him she repented and followed his teachings.

The painting by Claude Lorrain illustrates this moment. It depicts Mary herself, kneeling before the crucifixion and turning to God with her confession.

The painting uses typical techniques of a classical landscape - soft gentle colors typical of Claude Lorrain, trees as backstage, giving symmetry to the canvas, a smooth transition of the foreground into the background.

The figure of Mary Magdalene is not located in the center, it is slightly shifted. Her silhouette is illuminated by a dim glow that highlights the heroine against the dark background of trees and creates a peculiar effect of a theatrical performance. Nature is shown harmonious and perfect. The picture looks expressive and inspired. It is currently kept in the Prado Museum,based in Madrid, Spain.