The early work of Raphael . eived from Claude in exchange forsome of his own, was an early morning effect of peculiar merit. Thisthe shrewd German sold to a Dutchman for five hundred florins. Anotheranecdote points to the same conclusion. Sebastian Bourdon, a Frenchpainter remarkable for his wandering and adventurous career arrived inRome about 1634. Bourdon possessed a remarkable facility for copyingthe style of other artists, a facility by which he profited in his earlydays in Rome to procure a livelihood. Having seen in Claudes studioa half-finished landscape, on which the artist had been e
The early work of Raphael . eived from Claude in exchange forsome of his own, was an early morning effect of peculiar merit. Thisthe shrewd German sold to a Dutchman for five hundred florins. Anotheranecdote points to the same conclusion. Sebastian Bourdon, a Frenchpainter remarkable for his wandering and adventurous career arrived inRome about 1634. Bourdon possessed a remarkable facility for copyingthe style of other artists, a facility by which he profited in his earlydays in Rome to procure a livelihood. Having seen in Claudes studioa half-finished landscape, on which the artist had been engaged for afortnight, Bourdon set to work, and in eight days produced a finishedcopy of it, executed with such maestria that it was hailed by the con-noisseurs of Rome as a masterpiece of Claude. Guillet de St. Georges,who tells the story, adds that Claude had the curiosity to go and see theforgery, and was so enraged at it that he would have taken a summaryvengeance, had not Bourdon discreetly kept out of his way. Bourdon. £0 ^5 s; CO 28 CLAUDE LORRAIN would scarcely have been at the trouble of counterfeiting the work of aman who had not already won a reputation. We also know that before Sandrart left Rome Claude had sent for anephew, Jean Gel lee, to whom he intrusted the whole management of hishousehold, even the purchase of his colours, in order to have his timequite free. From all this we may gather that before 1635 Claude had an estab-lished reputation and clientele. One of Claudes earliest patrons would seem to have been Philippede Bethune, Comte de Selles et de Charost, who in 1627 was for thesecond time appointed ambassador of France at the Papal Court. This nobleman, a younger brother of the great Sully, added to hisreputation as a soldier and a diplomat that of a connoisseur of his residence in Rome he formed a collection of pictures by Italianmasters. For him Claude painted two fine canvases now in the Louvre, one(Louvre Cat. 310, L. V. 9) representing
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookde, booksubjectraphael14831520, bookyear1895
