Landscape with Walled Town

Claude Lorrain's "Landscape with Walled Town" is a black chalk drawing on rust laid paper, laid down on cream laid paper. The rust-colored paper provides an unusual and warm ground that gives the drawing a distinctive tonality. Black chalk on warm paper creates a softer, more atmospheric effect than pen and ink, and this drawing shows Claude working in a more subdued, tonal mode. The subject—a landscape with a walled town in the distance—is a classic Claude theme. The walled town, perhaps a fortified hill town in the Roman Campagna, rises in the distance, while the foreground is occupied by trees, rocks, and perhaps figures. The black chalk is handled with great sensitivity, building the forms through gradations of pressure and creating a range of tones from the darkest accents to the lightest touches. The rust paper gives the entire composition a warm, golden undertone that anticipates the luminous quality of Claude's painted landscapes.

Claude's chalk drawings on colored papers demonstrate the range of his draftsmanship, showing his sensitivity to the way different paper colors could influence the mood of a drawing.

This black chalk drawing on rust paper captures the warmth and atmosphere of the Roman Campagna, the unusual paper ground giving the entire composition a golden glow.