\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 French painter.\par
Moving to Rome from his native Lorraine around 1620, Claude entered the studio of Agostino Tassi, a pai
nter of \i quadrature\i0 and landscapes. The artist would spend almost all of his life in Rome, where he moved in a circle of Northern European painters. His style blends the meticulous realism of the North with the classicism of Annibale Carracci, whos
e conception of the ideal landscape exercised a fundamental influence on Claude. From 1636 onward, the artist kept a record of his work in the \i Liber Veritas\i0 (London, British Museum), made up of 195 drawings, each an accurate copy of each of his pa
intings. In his seascapes and landscapes inspired by the Roman Campagna, Claude turned his studies and sketches into solemn scenes framed by vistas of buildings and trees or boats that create an impression of endless space and a temporal remoteness. Thes
e views are characterized by an intense luminosity and enlivened by tiny figures at work or engaged in concerts, dances, and processions (\i Departure of Saint Paula\i0 , 1639, Madrid, Prado; \i Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba\i0 , 1648, London, Nation
al Gallery; \i View of a Harbor at Dawn\i0 , Paris, Louvre; \i Mill\i0 , 1648; and \i Mercury Stealing ApolloÆs Cattle\i0 and \i View of Delphi with a Procession\i0 , 1650, Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphili). His work was extremely popular with his contempo
raries, especially British collectors, and became a model for the landscape painting of the nineteenth century.
