Lot Essay
A study for the Pastoral Landscape dated 1642, now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, M. Röthlisberger, op. cit., 1961, no. LV64, fig. 135. The Berlin picture is different in a number of respects: the temple on the left is larger, the tree is on the left rather than in the centre and figures were added in the foreground.
The composition is also known through a ricordo in Claude's Liber Veritatis now in the British Museum, M. Röthlisberger, op. cit., 1968, no. 508, illustrated. Although the drawing in the Liber Veritatis indicates that the picture was painted for a Parisian collector, its provenance is untraced up to 1722 when it was in the Duke of Portland's sale.
A later autograph repetition of the picture was in the Earl of Jersey's collection and was destroyed by fire after 1945, Röthlisberger, op. cit., 1961, no. 78, fig. 148.
Characteristic of Claude's drawings, the present sheet shows perspectival lines in black chalk which the artist carefully followed in the preparation of the drawing: the horizontal one indicates the line of the horizon and the two diagonal lines enclose the tree and limit the rocks on the left.
The composition is also known through a ricordo in Claude's Liber Veritatis now in the British Museum, M. Röthlisberger, op. cit., 1968, no. 508, illustrated. Although the drawing in the Liber Veritatis indicates that the picture was painted for a Parisian collector, its provenance is untraced up to 1722 when it was in the Duke of Portland's sale.
A later autograph repetition of the picture was in the Earl of Jersey's collection and was destroyed by fire after 1945, Röthlisberger, op. cit., 1961, no. 78, fig. 148.
Characteristic of Claude's drawings, the present sheet shows perspectival lines in black chalk which the artist carefully followed in the preparation of the drawing: the horizontal one indicates the line of the horizon and the two diagonal lines enclose the tree and limit the rocks on the left.