LANDSCAPE CANVASSES ON EXHIBITION IN FOGG

There has just been placed on exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum a small group of canvasses illustrative of the art of landscape painting in the 17th century. For of them, loaned by Mr. Pierre la Rose '95 are attributed to Claude Lorraine and afford an opportunity, unusual in this country, of studying in examples of varied range and feeling the work of this master, who has been called the "father of modern landscape."

Born in 1600, Claude Gellee, called is Lorraine from his native province of France, ventured to Rome in his youth struggled as a paint-boy in Tassi's studio, and won his first recognition from Cardinal Bentivoglio, who, in 1629, purchased two pictures from the young artist. When Pope Urban, who was shown them by the cardinal, expressed his exceptional pleasure, the landscapes of Claude became the fashion, and his fame steadily rose during the rest of his long life of 82 years. At his death he was a recognized classic, his reputation remaining steadily supreme in his field throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. Later, even if somewhat neglected, it was to suffer little if any eclipse especially in the English mind until the advent of Turner.

The two smaller canvasses by Claude, now in the Fogg Museum, are among the earliest dated examples of the master; are, in fact, the pair owned by Cardinal Bentivoglio, which subsequently came into the possession of the king of Naples. The student of Claude will welcome the rare chance of comparing these early landscapes with that in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, painted at the very end of the artist's career.

The two larger canvasses were once in the possession of the Duke of Buckingham.