CLAUDE LORRAIN (ClaudeGellee)
77 Figures in a Landscape
before a Harbor
Pen and brown ink, reddish brown wash, and white
gouache heightening on blue paper; H: 23.7 cm (9^3 /s in.);
W: 33.9 cm (i3^5 /i6in.)
82.GA.80
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom right
corner, collection mark of William Esdaile (L. 2617);
(verso) inscribed W Esdaile, Claude, 1834-35 xx in brown
ink; two collection marks of Baron Adalbert von Lanna
(L. 1659, 2773).
PROVENANCE: William Esdaile, London (sale, February
6 , 1840, lot 648); Baron Adalbert von Lanna, Prague
(sale, Gutekunst, Stuttgart, May 6, 1910, lot 257); art
market, Paris.
EXHIBITIONS: Im Licht von Claude Lorrain, Haus der
Kunst, Munich, March-May 1983, no. 34 (catalogue by
M. Roethlisberger).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.DESPITE ITS DISTINGUISHED EARLIER PROVENANCE,
this drawing was unknown in the Claude literature until
the Munich exhibition of 1983 (as no. 34). In the accom-
panying catalogue, Roethlisberger notes the similarity
between it and a painting in the Johnson collection,
Princeton,^1 and states his belief that it is a copy by Claude
after that picture. He dates the drawing to the same pe-
riod, that is, the late 16305.
The Museum's drawing is associated not only with
the Johnson painting and the related drawing after it in
the Liber veritatis^2 but also with a study in the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts, Paris (inv. 939), and a sheet in the Sta-
delsches Kunstinstitut und Stadtische Galerie, Frankfurt
(inv. I266).^3 Both of these drawings have points in com-
mon with the Johnson painting, but the latter also shares
certain details with the Museum's study that are not
found in either of the other drawings. Among them are
the group of fighting men at the left, the placement of
the tower close to the composition's center, and the con-
tinuation of the water around the front and left of the
tower, making this a harbor scene. The Museum's draw-
ing also differs from the painting in several respects; it
lacks foreground figures and animals as well as trees at
the left. This analysis would appear to yield the conclu-
sion that all three drawings preceded the painting, but
that further studies were used that provided the basis for
the changes between existing drawings and the picture.
The subject of both the painting and the Museum's
drawing remains elusive and may not be more elaborate
than a first reading would indicate. As Roethlisberger has
pointed out (1983), the same tower appears in a pen draw-
ing in the British Museum, London (inv.oo. 6-78),^4 with
the inscription fortezza di tivoli. Equally, he has noted
that the castle of Bracciano may have inspired the one in
the upper left background of the Museum's sheet. The
imaginative composite architectural setting and brilliant
light effects make this a classic example of Claude's har-
bor scenes.- M. Roethlisberger, Claude Lor rain: The Paintings (New Ha-
ven, 1961), no. 26. - M. Roethlisberger, Claude Lor rain: The Drawings (Berkeley,
1968), no. 180. - Ibid., nos. 181-182.
- Roethlisberger (note 2), no. 53 51.
174 FRENCH SCHOOL • LORRAIN