GELEE, zhe-lE, CLAUDE (1600-82), generally called Claude Lorrain. A French landscape painter and etcher. He was born in the village of Chamagne, in Lorraine, in 1600. His parents were of humble origin, and he was the third son of five children. He became an orphan at twelve, and in consequence sought work for his own support, which led him to Rome about the age of sixteen. His talent and enthusiasm for art were aroused when he saw some landscape paintings of a Flem ish painter, Godfrey Wals, then residing at Naples. He made the journey on foot to Naples to discover the master of his choice, and lived in the artist's family for two years, while he made special studies in architectural design and per spective. On his return to Rome he sought em ployment in the studio of Agostino Tassi, a pupil of Paul Bril, another landscape painter from Flanders. The subjects of Tassi's pictures were picturesque ruins, harbors crowded with fleets and throngs of men from all nations, which were reflected later in, the works of Claude. In 1625 he visited Venice and several cities in Germany and France. On his return to Rome, where he lived for the rest of his life, he formed an intimacy with the painter Joachim Sandrart, to whom we owe his biography, and to whom Claude owed the incentive to study directly from nature. He enjoyed the patronage of Pope Urban VIII., for whom he painted two pictures, now in the Louvre, the "Village Eke" and a "Seaport at Sunset." Pope Clement IX. also conferred upon him many favors.
Thirty years of residence in Rome, studying the ancient buildings, made it possible for Claude to give to his pictures a true setting for the semi pagan tastes of the ruling class. His popularity reached such a point that he found it difficult to supply the demand for pictures, and they brought such high prices that other artists plagiarized his style and name. In order to prevent the sale of fraudulent copies, he designed the Liber Veritatis, a book of two hundred sketches in pen and ink wash, which could be used to verify the original work. He worked up to the last year of his life, dying at eighty-two years of age, on Novem ber 25, 1682. His character was without re proach; one of his chief traits was thoughtfulness for others. His will gave instructions that his body should be buried in the Church of San tissima Trinitit de' Monte. The French Govern
ment, in 1836, had the remains removed to the Church of San Luigi de' Francesi, near the Pantheon.
The subjects of Claude's works are marines and landscapes, often with sylvan groves, and bits of classical architecture. His technique is smooth, but expressed with great simplicity. His color is warm and rich in quality, often glowing with a yellow tone, producing brilliant effects of light reflected in the sky, clouds, and water. One of the charms of his pictures is the un limited space they present, always interpreted with poetic feeling. As a figure painter Claude failed, often employing another artist to paint in figures for him.
Salvator Rosa and the two Poussins were his contemporaries at Rome, and, although they were somewhat influenced by his style, yet in the works of Ruysdael, Hobbema, Cuyp, and Turner the influence is more evident, both in coloring and in atmospheric effects.
In 1630 he appeared as an etcher and engraver ; on the forty-four etchings ascribed to him there are at least eighteen signatures, some in French, and others in Italian. The technique of his drawings is curious, combining lines and wash. The lines are used only to emphasize the shadows and to delineate the figures.
Most of his paintings are in England, but he is also represented in all the important galleries of Europe. In the National Gallery, London, are the "Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba," "Em barkation of Saint Ursula," and a Seaport; in Madrid, the "Finding of Moses," "Embarkation of Saint Paula," "Temptation of Saint Anthony"; in Munich, the "Expulsion of Hagar and Ish mael," "Hagar in the Desert"; in the Louvre, at Paris, the "Landing of Cleopatra at Tarsus," the "Village Dance," six marine views and two land scapes; in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, the "Meeting of Jacob and Rachel," the "Flight into Egypt," "Apollo and the Cumtean Sibyl." Con sult: Sandrart, Teutsehe Academie der edlen Batt-, Bild- and Malereikiinste (Nuremberg, 1675-79) ; D'Argenville, Abrege de la vie des plus fame= peintres (Paris, 1745) ; Pattison, Claude Lorrain, sa vie et ses muvres (Paris, 1884) ; and Dullea, Claude Gelee, le Lorrain. (London, 1887).