Description
This drawing represents a view of the famous Acqua Acetosa, a mineral spring that until the 19th century provided the favored drinking water of Romans who believed in its healing powers. Although topographically accurate, the sheet is not a plein-air study but a vision of an imagined Arcadian world carefully rendered by Gellée, one of the most original painters of the 17th century. The French-born artist spent his career painting and drawing the Roman Campagna and the Neopolitan coastline. Sublimely beautiful pen-and-ink and wash drawings such as the example here reveal the artist's highly poetic response to the natural world and his unparalleled sensitivity to light.
Provenance
Sir Joshua Reynolds(?); Sir Abraham Hume; by descent to Lord Alford; by descent to the Earls of Brownlow; [sale, Sotheby's, London, 14 July 1926, lot 43]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward Belden Greene, Cleveland.
Accession Number
1928.15
Medium
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over graphite, framing lines in brown ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 26 x 40.5 cm (10 1/4 x 15 15/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Greene
Tags
Color: Orange Color: White
Background & Context
Background Story
Claude Lorrain's "View of the Acqua Acetosa" (c. 1645) is a masterful landscape drawing executed in pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash over graphite. Claude Gellée, known as Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), was the greatest landscape painter of the 17th century and the artist who transformed landscape into a subject worthy of the noblest artistic ambitions. Born in the Duchy of Lorraine, Claude spent most of his career in Rome, where he developed a vision of the Campagna—the countryside around Rome—as an idyllic, golden-hued realm infused with classical nostalgia. The Acqua Acetosa was a location near Rome known for its mineral springs. This drawing shows Claude working directly from nature, capturing the particular forms of trees, buildings, and hillsides with remarkable freshness. His technique combines precise pen lines for structure with fluid brush washes for atmosphere and shadow. The recto-verso nature of this sheet (with "David and Goliath" on the reverse) is especially valuable—it shows Claude using both sides of the paper for different aspects of his practice: landscape study on one side, a biblical figure composition on the other.
Cultural Impact
Claude Lorrain's landscape drawings were revolutionary in their direct observation of nature and their ability to capture atmosphere, influencing generations of landscape artists from Turner to Corot to the Impressionists.
Why It Matters
This double-sided drawing offers rare insight into Claude's creative process, showing him moving between direct landscape study and biblical composition on a single sheet, revealing the unity of observation and imagination in his art.
