CLAUDE GELLÉE, KNOWN AS LE LORRAIN (Chamagne,... Lot 124

CLAUDE GELLÉE, KNOWN AS LE LORRAIN (Chamagne, c. 1600-Rome, 1682) LANDSCAPE WITH A GALLEY AND THE FLAG OF MALTA Canvas Louis XIV period frame, gilded - Landscape with a flag of the Order of Malta galley, canvas, in a Louis XIV regilt frame 73 x 86 CM - 28,7 x 33,9 IN - - Provenance Anonymous sale, Paris, Drouot Rive Gauche, May 7, 1976; Chez Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, 1984-1987; Collection du marquis de Lastic, Château de Parentignat. Exhibitions Claude Lorrain and the Ideal Landscape, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, September 15 - December 6, 1998, no. 21, reproduced (early Claude); Du Baroque au classicisme : Rubens, Poussin et les peintres du XVIIe siècle, Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, September 24, 2010 - January 24, 2011, p. 166, reproduced in color. Bibliography Marcel Roethlisberger, "New Works by Tassi, Claude and Desiderii", in Apollo Magazine, August 1984, p. 96, reproduced plate I (circa 1628); Marcel Roethlisberger and Doretta Cecchi, Tout l'œuvre peint de Claude Lorrain, Milan, 1986, no. 287, reproduced (shortly before 1629); Dominique Brême, "Le château de Parentignat", in L'Estampille. L'Objet d'Art, July-August 1996, reproduced p. 58 fig. 6 (circa 1620-1625); Pierre Jacky, "Parentignat", in Connaissance des Arts, Hors-Série 328, July 2007, quoted p. 26 and reproduced p. 8 (early work). Our painting is one of the artist's earliest Roman pictures, painted around 1628, in which we can see both the influences of his master Agostino Tassi and the characteristics that would make him the greatest landscape painter of the 17th century. In our painting, he comes close to Tassi in his depiction of an extremely well-structured river landscape, with two planes, a broad diagonal, finely delineated trees and elements reflected in the water. But the composition of our painting is tighter, more unified and framed. His treatment of water and foliage is more atmospheric than Tassi's. The strength of our painting lies in the depiction of the galley, an element found in Tassi, Filippo Napoletano and Goffredo Walls, the fine details in the foreground, the barrels, the pottery, the richly dressed figures and the inn in the background, with the poetry of the hill in the background. Claude Gellée insists on a dense representation of nature. The small figures in each shot are treated as accents of light. Dominique Brême points out that our painting establishes "the atmospheric unity and sense of space that were to be central to the artist's preoccupations". Our painting just precedes the Paysage avec un bateau (canvas, 72 x 93 CM), in a private collection, and the Paysage avec des bergers in the Museum of Art, Philadelphia, both dated 1629 (see Marcel Roethlisberger and Doretta Cecchi, Tout l'œuvre peint de Claude Lorrain, Milan, 1986, no. 9, reproduced plate I and no. 10, reproduced). We find the same great diagonal of a river or estuary, the foliage serving as a frame, the rhythm of the hills in the background and the reflections of the trees making the water green. Claude Gellée's main master was Agostino Tassi. He remained in his studio for almost ten years, spending two years in Naples with Goffredo Walls. He left Rome in April 1625 and worked for just over a year under Claude Deruet on the frescoes for the Carmelite church. Around 1630, Claude Gellée received his first major fresco commission, for landscapes at the Muti family residences in Rome, which no longer exist today. In 1637, he worked for Pope Urban VIII. His career was assured, and great patrons such as Cardinal Mazarin commissioned works from him. In the absence of archival references, we cannot at present specify for whom and under what circumstances our painting was made. The galley with the Maltese flag might suggest a patron close to the Order.