Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape

The Ashmolean's Museum (Oxford, United Kingdom) major exhibition is Claude Lorrain: The Enchanted Landscape, rediscovering the father of European landscape painting, Claude Gellée (c.1600-1682), or Claude Lorrain as he is best known.

In partnership with the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, the exhibition brings together 140 works from international collections, created at different points in the artist’s career. By uniting 'pairs' of Claude's paintings and making a comprehensive survey of his work in different media, the exhibition brings new research to bear on his working methods, to reveal an unconventional side to Claude which has previously been little known.

Born in France, Claude travelled first to Italy at the age of 13 or 14, settling in Rome for the rest of his life in 1627. The scenery of his great compositions was based on his studies of the ancient ruins and the rolling country of the Tiber Valley and the Roman Campagna. Claude's ability to translate his vision of the countryside and the majesty of natural light with the aid of his brush won him the admiration of his contemporaries, above all else, as a 'natural painter'.

Date: until January 8.
Location: Ashmolean Museum. Beaumont. St Oxford. OX1 2PH. United Kingdom
Opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm.

See somo of Lorrain's works in the following slideshow: