French School. Claude Gellee, called Claude Lorrain, the son of a pastry-cook. Studied in Rome, where he developed his remarkable individuality in the painting of romantic landscape.
LONDON, NATIONAL GALLERY
LANDSCAPE. MARRIAGE OF ISAAC AND REBECCA In the centre a broad river, with a water-mill in the middle distance to the left, and a more distant bridge leading to a town on the opposite side; a mountain distance. On each side are large trees, behind those on the left a waterfall; in the foreground a bridge with cattle drinking below it; near the centre are figures with tambourines, dancing.
Inscribed on a tree-stump in the centre: “Marriage d Isac avec; Rebeca Clavdio Gil. inv. Romae, 1648.”
This picture, painted for the Due de Bouillon, is a repetition, with considerable variations, of “The Doria or Panfili Claude” at Rome, also known as “Il Molino,” or “Claude’s Mill.”
SEAPORT. EMBARKATION OF THE QUEEN OF SHEBA The sun is represented a little above the horizon; in the left foreground, reaching to the top of the picture, is a Corinthian ruin, with shipping be hind; on the right a pile of Italian architecture partly relieved by foliage, and the Queen and her attendants descending a flight of steps to enter a boat. A ship at anchor at the entrance of the port. Figures in the right foreground, and a boat in the centre.
Inscribed in the right corner, “La Reine de 5aba va trover Salomon,” and in the left, “Clavde Gil. 1. v. faict pour son altesse le Due de Buillon a Roma, 1648.”
This and the preceding picture are hung on either side of Turner’s Sun Rising through Vapour and Dido building Carthage, in accordance with the terms under which his pictures were bequeathed by him. They were purchased from the Anberstein Collection in 1824.
ULYSSES RETURNS CHRYSEIS TO HER FATHER On a quay in the immediate foreground are several small groups of figures. Beyond, the water stretches to the horizon between a range of palatial buildings on the left, and the tall peristyle of a temple on the right, the ship of Ulysses, at anchor, looming large in the middle distance against the sunset sky.
The figures are by Filippo Lauri. Painted about 1648.