French 1600-1682 Claude Lorrain Galleries In Rome, not until the mid-17th century were landscapes deemed fit for serious painting. Northern Europeans, such as the Germans Elsheimer and Brill, had made such views pre-eminent in some of their paintings (as well as Da Vinci in his private drawings or Baldassarre Peruzzi in his decorative frescoes of vedute); but not until Annibale Carracci and his pupil Domenichino do we see landscape become the focus of a canvas by a major Italian artist. Even with the latter two, as with Lorrain, the stated themes of the paintings were mythic or religious. Landscape as a subject was distinctly unclassical and secular. The former quality was not consonant with Renaissance art, which boasted its rivalry with the work of the ancients. The second quality had less public patronage in Counter-Reformation Rome, which prized subjects worthy of "high painting," typically religious or mythic scenes. Pure landscape, like pure still-life or genre painting, reflected an aesthetic viewpoint regarded as lacking in moral seriousness. Rome, the theological and philosophical center of 17th century Italian art, was not quite ready for such a break with tradition. In this matter of the importance of landscape, Lorrain was prescient. Living in a pre-Romantic era, he did not depict those uninhabited panoramas that were to be esteemed in later centuries, such as with Salvatore Rosa. He painted a pastoral world of fields and valleys not distant from castles and towns. If the ocean horizon is represented, it is from the setting of a busy port. Perhaps to feed the public need for paintings with noble themes, his pictures include demigods, heroes and saints, even though his abundant drawings and sketchbooks prove that he was more interested in scenography. Lorrain was described as kind to his pupils and hard-working; keenly observant, but an unlettered man until his death. The painter Joachim von Sandrart is an authority for Claude's life (Academia Artis Pictoriae, 1683); Baldinucci, who obtained information from some of Claude's immediate survivors, relates various incidents to a different effect (Notizie dei professoni del disegno). John Constable described Claude Lorrain as "the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw", and declared that in Claude??s landscape "all is lovely ?C all amiable ?C all is amenity and repose; the calm sunshine of the heart"  Related Paintings of Claude Lorrain :. | Concordia (mk17) | Landscape with a Sacrifice to Apolio (n03) | David Slaying Goliath (mk17) | Figures behind Plants (mk17) | Seehafen beim Aufgang der Sonne |
Related Artists:
Madame Elie
Active in France during the 19the Century
Percy Lindsay
Percival (Percy) Charles Lindsay (1870 - 1952) was an Australian landscape painter, illustrator and cartoonist, born in Creswick, Victoria. Percy was the first child born to Jane Lindsay (nee Williams) and Dr Robert Charles Lindsay. His siblings included the well known artists: Sir Lionel Lindsay, Norman Lindsay, Ruby Lindsay and Sir Daryl Lindsay. Percy first began painting while at school and further developed his skills during the late 1880s. Tuition from Fred Sheldon and Walter Withers saw him develop his painting skills to a professional level. Percy moved to Melbourne in the 1890s and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist. During his time in Melbourne Percy was at the centre of the cities bohemian art community. In 1918 he moved with his wife and child to Sydney where he continued to paint landscapes while working as a cartoonist on the Bulletin magazine.
Donat, Johann Daniel
painted Emperor Leopold II in the regalia of the in 1806