Le Soleil levant [Harbor Scene with Rising Sun]
1634
17th century
13.1 cm x 19.9 cm (5 3/16 in. x 7 13/16 in.)
Claude Lorrain
(Lorraine, France, 1604 - 1682, Rome, Italy)
Primary
Object Type:
print
Artist Nationality:
Europe, French
Medium and Support:
Etching
Credit Line:
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Leo Steinberg Collection, 2002
Accession Number:
2002.385
The creator of classical landscape painting, Claude Lorrain was an etcher of equivalent beauty and significance. Le soleil levant, based on a painting in the Hermitage, is one of the first plates of his mature style, systematic in construction, luminous in effect, and exquisite in touch. For nearly a decade, Claude did not make a print. When he resumed with the Berger et bergère, above, the conception was more improvisatory, the initial handling broader, and the plate steadily refined through multiple states. Steinberg’s six etchings by Claude are of a quality now unobtainable.