An Artist Studying from Nature, Claude Lorrain (1639)
Claude Lorrain achieved fame as a painter of ideal landscapes, a type of art that sought to represent nature as more beautiful and more “ideal” than nature itself. His paintings are the visual equivalent of pastoral poetry, and often are inhabited (as in pastoral poetry) by shepherds and other country folk.
In "An Artist Studying from Nature," Claude painted an imaginary harbor dominated by a large tree and a fortified building and bathed in glowing light. The building is similar to the Castle of Palo, a fortified structure on the Mediterranean coast west of Rome.
