Panorama from the Sasso
1649/1655
Medium
Pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache and traces of white chalk, over black chalk and graphite, on cream laid paper
Dimensions
16.2 × 40.2 cm (6 7/16 × 15 7/8 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
60031
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
For Claude Lorrain, one of the most important aspects of his adopted city of Rome was its surrounding countryside, the Campagna, which the artist studied, sketched, and painted all his life. His evocative classical landscapes were sought after by papal patrons as well as by aristocrats and royalty throughout Europe. For nearly a century after his death, travelers on the grand tour of European capitals judged real scenery according to his standards. In Claude’s landscapes, as in this superb drawi...
About the Artist
Claude Lorrain · 1604–1682
Claude Lorrain (c. 1600-1682), born Claude Gellée in the village of Chamagne in northeastern France's Duchy of Lorraine, stands as one of the most influential landscape painters in Western art history. Orphaned by age twelve, his journey to artistic mastery was unconventional—beginning with apprenticeships in pastry-making and inlay work before destiny led him to Rome around 1620, where he would s...