CLAUDE LE LORRAIN, or Claude Gelee, a celebrated landscape painter, and a striking example of the efficacy of industry to supply, or at least to call forth genius. Claude was born in the diocese of Toul, in Lorraine, in 1600, and, being dull and heavy at school, he was put an apprentice to a pastry-cook; he afterwards rambled to Rome to seek a livelihood; but being very ill bred, and unacquainted with the language, nobody cared to employ him. Chance threw him at last in the way of Augustin Tassi, a painter, who hired him to grind his colours, and to do all the household drudgery. His master hoping to make him serviceable in some of his greatest works, taught him by degrees the rules of perspective and the elements of design. Claude at first did not know what to make of these principles of art; but being encouraged, and not failing in application, he came at length to understand them. Then his mind began to expand, and he cultivated the art with wonderful eagerness. He exerted his utmost industry to explore the true principles of painting by an incessant examination of nature, that genuine source of excellence; for which purpose he made his studies in the open fields, where he very frequently continued from sunrise till the close of the evening compelled him to withdraw himself from his contemplations. It was his custom to sketch whatever he thought beautiful or striking; and every curious tinge of light, on all kinds of objects, he marked in his sketches with a similar colour; from which he perfected his landscapes with such a look of real nature, and gave them such an appearance of truth, as proved superior to any artist who had ever painted in that style.

The beauties of his paintings are derived from nature herself, which he examined with uncommon assiduity; and Sandrart relates, that Claudio used to explain to him, as they walked through the fields, the causes of the different appearances of the same prospect at different hours of the day, from the reflections or refractions of light, from dews or vapours in the evening or morning, with all the precision of a philosopher. He worked on his pictures with great care, endeavouring to bring them to perfection, by retouching them frequently; and if any performance did not answer his ideas, it was customary with him to alter, to deface, and repaint it several times over, till it corresponded with the image pictured in his mind. But whatever struck his imagination while he observed nature abroad, it was so strongly impressed on his memory, that on his return to his work he never failed to make the happiest use of it.

His skies are warm and full of lustre, and every object is properly illumined. His distances are admirable, and in every part a delightful union and harmony not only excite our applause, but our admiration. His invention is pleasing; his colouring delicate, and his tints have such an agreeable sweetness and variety, as have been but imperfectly imitated by the best succeeding artists, but were never equalled. He frequently gave an uncommon tenderness to his finished trees by glazing; and in his large compositions which he painted in fresco, he was so exact, that the distinct species of every tree might readily be distinguished. As to his figures, when he painted them himself, they are very indifferent; but he was so conscious of his deficiency in this respect, that he usually engaged other artists who were eminent to paint them for him, of which number were Curtois and Philippo Laura. In order to avoid a repetition of the same subject, and also to detect such copies of his works as might be injurious to his fame, by being sold for originals, it was his custom to draw (in a paper-book prepared for this purpose) the designs of all those pictures which were transmitted to different countries; and on the back of the drawings he wrote the name of the person who had been the purchaser. That book he titled Libro di Verita. This great artist died at Rome in November 1682, at the advanced age of eighty-two.