CLAUDE LORRAIN

Now known as an accomplished French landscape painter, in his early life Claude showed so little aptitude for academic study that his parents apprenticed him to a pastry cook. In Rome he lived in the house of Agostino Tassi, a Perugian landscape and marine painter to whom Claude became apprentice. His years in Rome were spent devoted to the study of nature. 'Liber Veritatis'-Claude's collection of 200 sepia sketches, were bequeathed to Claude's nephews but found a subsequent resting place with the Duke of Devonshire in England. Nearly all bear inscriptions as to where and for whom they were painted. Claude's landscapes combine romantic wonder and narrative to create an idyll made plausible by direct observation and Claude's fidelity to visual truth.