View of Seaport

Maker Claude Lorrain (French, 1604 - 1682)

Additional Title(s)

Seaport at sunrise (Liber Veritas no.2)

Collections

European Painting Highlights

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1633-1634

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions28 1/2 x 38 in. (72.4 x 96.5 cm.)

DescriptionThis painting portrays a harbor with a galleon on the left and three men in conversation in the center. On the right side are a few men loading a row-boat and several vessels riding at anchor.

InscribedCladio In. Roma

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, gift of Mildred Browning Green and Honorable Lucius Peyton Green

Status

On view

Label TextClaude Lorrain was a French painter who settled in Rome around 1627–28. His landscapes were among the most sought after by 17th- and 18th-century collectors and were widely imitated by artists. Like most of Claude’s work, this painting depicts a broad view of nature bathed in the golden light of morning or evening. For contemporary viewers, it would have evoked an ideal of the simple life, as well as the classical Roman poetry of Virgil, who imagined a pastoral setting he called Arcadia, where people lived harmoniously with nature.

Object number78.20.6