Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain (Chamagne, Lorraine, 1600 – Rome, 1682) was a French painter of the Baroque era. By the 1630s Lorrain was well known and successful, with illustrious patrons among the French and Italian aristocracy. [1] He exerted considerable influence on landscape artists of the 18th and 19th centuries, as these examples show. The English painter William Turner was especially indebted to Claude, and tried to outdo his grand compositions. [2]

Claude's achievement as a pioneer in landscape painting has earned him a place in the pantheon of art history. He was widely imitated for almost two centuries, and therefore often produces in the popular imagination a feeling of déjà-vu, especially in his best-known compositions. [3]