This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery. Please follow the links below for related online resources or visit our current exhibitions schedule.

This exhibition—the first devoted to Claude Lorrain (1604–1682) in the United States since the Gallery’s retrospective in 1982—presents a rare opportunity to see the important roles played by drawing in his work, both as an exercise in itself and in relation to the development of his paintings. Claude was one of the foremost landscape artists and draftsmen of the seventeenth century, and many of his greatest drawings have been selected from the incomparable holdings of the British Museum. Eighty drawings and a selection of etchings and paintings represent all aspects of his style and subject matter, from informal outdoor sketches of trees, rivers, and ruins, to formal presentation drawings, to elaborate drawings from his Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth), a remarkable record of his painted landscapes. 

Organization: Organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in association with the British Museum.

Sponsor: The exhibition is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.