The Dance on the River Bank (La danse au bord de l'eau)
c. 1634
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1964.8.457
Art Historical Context
Step into the sun-dappled world of Claude Lorr's *The Dance on the River (La danse au bord l'eau)*, an enchanting etching from around 1634, now housed in the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection. Created during the French artist's formative years in Rome, this print captures Lorrain's mastery of the classical landscape genre, a hallmark of 17th-century Baroque art Influenced by Italian masters like Domenichino and the Carracci, Lorrain crafted idyllic scenes blending real and imagined nature, evoking an eternal Arcadia where figures dance gracefully along a serene riverbank under vast ...
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...