Claude Lorrain

In his idealized landscapes, Claude Lorrain sought to create a beautiful and ordered nature. For this image and for many of his forty-four extant etchings, Claude adopted Callot’s stepped etching process, experimenting with different durations of acid baths on the copperplate to carefully nuance and control the weight and depth of lines and thus the cast of light, a key element in the unification of his compositions. This harbor scene relies on a staged, ordered recession into space similar to Callot’s but with less contrast, resulting in a more natural recession. Claude’s line is also different from that of Callot, with short, sketchy strokes that focus on atmospheric harmony over the swell and rise of volume.