From the Flemish artist Paul Bril, to Claude Lorrain, and then through the French ports of Claude-Joseph Vernet to the oil sketches of Valenciennes.
Lorrain
Pupil of Richard Wilson, one of the fathers of British landscape painting, he accompanied Captain Cook on his second exploratory voyage to the Pacific.
An Austrian who trained at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, joined a gold rush in Australia, then painted the continent’s landscapes.
An exotic import until the Romans enlisted her support against the Carthaginians, her chariot is drawn by a lion and lioness – who desecrated an old shrine.
At the start of the 19th century, industrial power came from wind and water. Within forty years, steam power was taking over. How quickly did Turner respond to this revolution?
Finance by the spoils of the Temple of Jerusalem, a place of suffering and death, and for oppression of Christians. Success out of excess.
Originally a marsh just outside the city’s walls, it came to be the heart of the city, a market, meeting place, and the political hub.
Claude Lorrain’s view of Delos, Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, several versions of the Flight to Egypt, including one by William Blake, and more.
Some of his finest landscapes painted during the late 1650s. Then in 1658, he married, and within two years stopped painting completely.
His landscapes gained a rich Claudean light, as he painted ferries on the nearby River Maas, and cattle enjoying the cool water.
