Claude Lorrain
1600-1682
Landscape with Ruins
1663
8 1/8 x 11 7/8 inches (205 x 301 mm)
Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk, on paper prepared with a light brown wash; remains of chalk border at outer edges.
III, 82a
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.
Notes
Claude produced this study for a seemingly minor background detail: a temple with four corinthian columns, four pilasters, and a ruined pediment, set in a hilly landscape. The temple appears at far left in Claude's painting Mercury and Battus, commissioned by a patron from Antwerp (who has yet to be identified) in 1663 (Dukes of Devonshire, Chatsworth). Roethlisberger noted its close correspondence with the painting, citing only the slightly lower placement of the trees at right in the drawing. He concluded it is likely a study for, and not after, the painting. The temple also appears less precisely drawn in a rich, monochromatic study for the painting (Louvre, Paris; RF4590). The painting is recorded in Claude's Liber Veritatis (British Museum, London).
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower right of old mount, "J: B."; on verso of old mount in pen and brown ink, "J:B No 337./12 by 8."; in different pen and brown ink, "P. No 18"
Associated names
Pond, Arthur, 1701-1758, former owner.
Barnard, John, d. 1784, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Barnard, John, d. 1784, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Roethlisberger, Marcel. Claude Lorrain. The Drawings, 1968, no. 894.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Catalog link
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