Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain's paintings give landscape and light a central role within biblical and classical narratives, often setting small figures against expansive views. Trees and architecture frame passages toward distant water, hills, or a bright horizon, with changing tones joining foreground and distance. Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, painted in 1648 for the Duc de Bouillon, places the biblical queen's departure within a harbor illuminated by sunrise. The Enchanted Castle joins an imagined landscape with the story of Psyche, making the solitary figure and distant palace parts of a literary setting. Although Claude worked mainly in Rome, his outdoor drawings record close observation of the surrounding countryside. He developed these observations into oil paintings in the studio, combining studies of natural forms within a continuous landscape. His Liber Veritatis, or Book of Truth, preserves drawn records of completed compositions.