Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Sermon on the Mount

Claude Lorrain
1600-1682

The Sermon on the Mount

ca. 1656
9 9/16 x 14 1/16 inches (243 x 371 mm)
Pen and brown ink, and wash, over black chalk on laid paper; divided into quadrants in black chalk.
I, 272

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

Notes
For ambitious paintings such as The Sermon on the Mount, painted in 1656 for the Bishop of Montpellier (now in the Frick Collection, New York), Claude produced several compositional studies; this is the third of four drawings of the scene. Claude sets the narrative in a vast landscape that strives for topographical accuracy, although he never visited the Holy Land. The distant Mount Lebanon and the Sea of Galilee are at right, and the Dead Sea and the river Jordan are at left. At center is Mount Tabor, where Christ, as described in the Gospel of Matthew, is shown preaching to the multitude. -- Exhibition Label, From "Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age"
Associated names
Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723-1792, former owner.
Wellesley, Henry, 1791-1866, former owner.
Drake, William Richard, Sir, 1817-1890, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Bibliography
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 272, repr.
Denison, Cara D. French Drawings, 1550-1825. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984, no. 21.
The Master's Hand : Drawings and Manuscripts from the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1998, no. 7, repr. in color.
Roethlisberger, Marcel, Claude Lorrain. The Drawings, 1968, no. 768.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department