Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain (born Claude Gellée) was born in Champagne in eastern France. Orphaned early, he went to Rome while young and studied in the workshop of the painter Agostino Tassi. His year of birth is variously given as 1600 or 1604-05 and is not settled. He became a landscape painter in Rome, and was a friend of Nicolas Poussin, who was active there at the same time.

He adopted an asymmetrical composition, with a thicket of trees on one side and an open space built with aerial perspective on the other. He rendered subtle effects of light with skillful shading, and established his own poetic landscape painting. He also took up history painting alongside Poussin, but always kept his main focus on landscape. In Japan, Forest Landscape with a Stream is held.

Claude Lorrain died on November 23, 1682.