Claude Lorrain. Drawings and etchings

For specialists, this is no surprise, but for everyone else it’s a real revelation: thanks to the Duc d’Aumale, the Château de Chantilly conserves a collection of graphic works by Claude Lorrain of the very highest order, little known and even less often exhibited: these sheets have not been on display since 2001! So it was high time to show them again, especially as what could have been a ‘simple’ focus exhibition has gradually evolved into a truly demanding event, enriched by new perspectives and numerous loans.

1. Claude Gellée, called Claude ( c. 1600-1682)
Two Studies of a Draughtsman and his Companion, c. 1650-1660
Pen and brown ink - 10.3 x 19 cm
Pontoise, Musée Tavet-Delacour
Photo: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire Pissarro-Pontoise

See the image in its page

The exhibition also includes a double study from Pontoise (ill. 1) that had eluded the artist’s specialist, Marcel Roethlisberger, who passed away in March 2020. A perfect foretaste of walks in and around Rome, it was published by Pierre Rosenberg in the Revue de l’Art in 1971 but has never been exhibited since. The drawing was lightly restored in Chantilly prior to the exhibition, as is customary, and benefits from a fascinating note by Lisa Beaven, to whom the curator Baptiste Roelly - who carefully oversees the graphic arts at the Musée Condé - entrusted the most stimulating texts of this solid work, which benefited from the enlightened and decisive support of the collector and patron Alice Goldet. Drawing on environmental studies, this Australian researcher reminds us that the Roman countryside was a perilous place, rife with both malaria and brigands, an emblematic motif that was also the subject of an etching in 1633.

2. Claude Gellée, called Claude ( c. 1600-1682)
Three Studies for a Composition with Brigands, c. 1633
Etching, pen and brown ink - 9.9 x 13.4 cm
Currently being acquired by the Musée Condé
Photo: Musée Condé

See the image in its page

The Musée…