Claude Gellee of Lorrain 1600-1682
Original etchings by the greatest landscape painter of all time
Claude made only 44 etchings, executed in two periods between 1630-1652 and 1662-1663. Of these, 15 are unobtainable rarities. The present group, assembled over thirty years, includes an extremely rare counterproof and a few variant impressions. Only in lifetime impressions such as these do you see atmosphere, changing light effects and other nuances that Claude projected in his oil paintings. All are fine examples in excellent condition.
"The first quality necessary to the enjoyment of Claude's art is patience. He is not a painter who offers instant sensations, who appeals by the intricacy of his narratives or who cuts through to the spectator's emotions with some acute psychological insight. He does not transport the spectator in imagination up to heaven - although he does not either deal merely in the here and now. The process of coming to terms with his work is one of careful adjustment, of opening oneself to the harmonies in which he specializes. … Although Claude's pictorial themes are restricted, he arranges them in countless different ways and transposes them into different keys, so that the exact mood of each painting is unique … His art is subtle, elusive and hard to describe in words but marvelously clear to the eye. Itself subjective, it invites a subjective response. Moreover it repays the patience expended on studying it by lasting, by being - as Constable said of a copy of Claude he was making -'something to drink at again and again' ".
- Excerpted from Art of Claude Michael Kitson, 1969 pp.5-7
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Le Pâtre et la bergère (The herdsman and the shepherdess)
Mannocci 3, II/III
On laid paper trimmed within the platemark but not into the image
160 x 113 mm., ca. 1630
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L'Apparition (The vision) ca 1630
Mannocci 5, II/V
105 x 172 mm., ca. 1630
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La Tempete (The Tempest)
Mannocci 6, IV,B/VII
On laid paper trimmed close to the borderline;
Watermark: Mannocci 18, fleur-de-lys, roman paper circa 1717,
a later impression
125 x 175 mm., 1630
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La Tempete (The Tempest)
Mannocci 6,IV,B/VII
On laid paper with wide margins (sheet: 247 x 309 mm.)
Watermark: eagle, M. 21 mid 18th century a later impression
Provenance: H. Vever
The three diagonal lines are printing darker than the previous impression
128 x 175 mm., 1630
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Les Chevres (The Goats)two impressions joined
ca. 1630-33, Mannocci 8
only one impression is known before the plate was halved left section: III/IV; on laid paper, no wm, heavier paper than right side, 191 x 125 mm.
right section: III,B/III,B, 192 x 126 mm.
both trimmed within the image, 191 x 252 mm.
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Les Quatre Chevres ( The four goats)
Mannocci 8, left section II,B/IV
200 x 131 mm., ca. 1630-33
On laid paper with wide margins (317 x 244 mm.); the dark patch in the lower right corner has been removed & there are lightly engraved drypoint lines in this area now; another set of lightly drypointed lines at right edge, 55 mm from top margin; before lines were removed in the lower margin Provenance: :H. Vever
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Les Trois Chevres (The three goats) right section
Mannocci 8, III, A/III,C
200 x 131 mm., ca. 1630-33
on laid paper similar to the left section described above with wide margins (ca. 317 x 2457 mm.); watermark: eagle, M. 21 a later mid 18th century impression Prov: H. Vever
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La Fuite en Egypte (The Flight into Egypt)
Mannocci 9, I/V
105 x 171 mm., ca. 1630-33
On laid paper with small margins (112 x 180 mm.); watermark: fleur-de-lys, M. 15, possibly 15a
An early, fine impression of the first state of four
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La Fuite en Egypte (The Flight into Egypt)
Mannocci 9, I/V
107 x 172 mm., ca. 1630-33
On laid paper with small margins (sheet: 124 x 191 mm.);
A later impression with no plate tone, printing much cleaner and harder; the border line not completed.
Provenance: Fogg Museum duplicate
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Scene de brigands (Landscape with brigands)
Mannocci 11, V,A/IX
128 x 198 mm., 1633
On laid paper trimmed on the platemark; watermark: M. 11
with an old window mounting sheet along the edges verso
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Scene de brigands (Landscape with brigands)
Mannocci 11, V,B/IX
130 x 198 mm., 1633
On laid paper with wide margins (sheet: 246 x 308 mm.); diagonal crease in the right margin
Provenance: H. Vever
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Le Passage du gue (The Ford)
Mannocci 12, II,B/V
116 x 171 mm., 1634
n laid paper with wide margins (sheet: ca. 147 x 310 mm.); An early impression with the marks and scratches clearly visible
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La Danse au bord de l' eau (The dance on the river-bank)
Mannocci 13,VI,B/VII
130 x 200 mm. ca. 1634
On laid paper with wide margins (sheet: 216 x 289 mm.); watermark: pascal lamb, probably M.19
Provenance: Collezione Alianello, Lugt 5k
Both life-time & posthumous impressions occur in this state. With plate tone; probably life-time
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L' Enlevement d Europe (The Rape of Europa)
Mannocci 14, VI,B/VII
(image shows partial of original)
197 x 260 mm., 1634
On laid paper trimmed on the platemark; a tiny portion of the lower right corner may have been re-attached
Provenance: The Reverend J. Burleigh James Rare
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Le Soleil levant (Harbour scene with rising sun)
Mannocci 15,IV/VIII
130 x 200 mm., 1634
On laid paper irregularly trimmed: narrow margins in places & trimmed on platemark elsewhere
watermark: M. 15, possibly 15a
Impressions from state III have not been seen by Mannocci; in later impressions of this state the sunlight is not visible.
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Le Tropeau a l abreuvoir ( The herd at the watering-place)
Mannocci 16, II/III
102 x 169 mm., 1635
Provenance: HST
On laid paper trimmed within the platemark, but outside the image's borderline
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Le Tropeau a l'abreuvoir ( The herd at the watering-place)
Mannocci 16, III/III
164 x 223 mm., 1635
On white wove paper with small margins; with a soft diagonal crease, visible verso
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Le Campo Vaccino (The Roman Forum)
Mannocci 17, V/IX
198 x 262 mm., 1636
On laid paper with narrow margins; with plate tone
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Le Campo Vaccino (The Roman Forum)
Mannocci 17, VI/IX
200 x 261 mm., 1636
On laid paper with wide margins (sheet: ca. 245 x 310 mm.); watermark: eagle, M. 21 mid 18th century, a later impression Provenance. H. Vever
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Le Campo Vaccino (The Roman Forum)
Mannocci 17, I or II/IX
COUNTERPROOF of the First or Second State of Nine
178 x 255 mm., 1636
On laid paper trimmed to the image's borderline, thus lacking text where the state change between I & II occurs in the legend beneath the image. Extremely rare.
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Le Bouvier ( The cowherd)
Mannocci 18, III,A/VI
125 x 197 mm., 1636
on laid paper trimmed within the platemark, but outside the image's borderline watermark: fleur-de-lys in a single circle, crowned, M. 15, possibly 15c the cow's head is no longer dark Rare
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Le Bouvier ( The cowherd)
Mannocci 18, IV,A/VI
131 x 201 mm., 1636
on laid paper trimmed on the platemark; watermark: m. 18, fleur-de-lys in a double circle ?collector's mark lower right corner, W in a circle
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La Danse sous les aarbres (The country dance, small plate)
Mannocci 19, IV,B/VII
139 x 198 mm., ca. 1637
On laid paper with narrow margins
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La Danse villageoise (The country dance, large plate)
Mannocci 20, II/IV
195 x 259 mm., ca. 1637
on laid paper trimmed within the platemark; watermark: M. 10
Is this an intermediate state between II & III? Here, the oval accident has occurred (II) and the plate has been effaced in this area, but the new lines to cover it have not yet been added.before additional foliage at extreme left
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La Danse villageoise (The country dance, large plate)
Mannocci 20, III/IV
199 x 260 mm., ca. 1637
on laid paper with margins; window mounted; watermark: M. 23, galloping horse ink inscription in the lower margin, "Etched by Claud" and "Patk[?] Namegth[???]"
with the additional foliage at left; slight peaked mountain. The faces of the two figures closest to the plate accident have disappeared.
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L' Depart pour les champs (Departure for the fields)
Mannocci 34, II or III,A/IV
127 x 180 mm., ca. 1638-41
Mannocci has not located a first state. On laid paper with small margins; undetermined watermark in the center of sheet (circle or horn?)
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Le Naufrage (The shipwreck)
Mannocci 35, II or III,A/V
128 x 182 mm., ca. 1638-41
On laid paper with wide margins (sheet: 190 x 244 mm.); watermark: pascal lamb, M. 19 Mannocci has not located a first state surmising only that one existed
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Le Dessinateur (Coast scene with an artist)
Mannocci 36,II/V
125 x 177 mm., ca. 1638-41
on laid paper trimmed within the platemark, but outside the image
Mannocci has not located a first state.
Rare" With plate tone, with diagonal streaks above the round tower
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Le Port de mer au fanal (Harbour scene with a lighthouse)
Mannocci 37, III,B/V
136 x 197 mm., ca. 1638-41
Mannocci has not located a first state
"Very Rare but dry imp", "early IIIB/V" inscriptions in pencil on sheet's verso on laid paper with irregularly trimmed thread margins & trimmed on the platemark in places.
on contemporary paper - the scratch with burr. Unidentifiable collector's mark, lower left corner verso (a circle with ?? w???)
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Le Pont du bois (The wooden bridge, Rebecca and Eliezer)
Mannocci 38, IV,A/VII
127 x 193 mm., ca. 1638-41
On laid paper with small margins (sheet: 136 x 202 mm.);
Mannocci has not located impressions of the 1st & 3rd state; The "second state" he has seen may be a falsified state
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Le Port de mer a la grosse tour (Harbour with a large tower)
Mannocci 39, III/VI
130 x 194 mm., ca. 1641
On laid paper trimmed on or just within the platemark. Possibly an intermediate state, a late third with the diagonal scratches here printing without burr but with the vertical scratch at the center of the top edge in the fourth state printing with burr.
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Le Tropeau en marche par un temps orageux (The heard returning in stormy weather)
Mannocci 40, II, C/II,C
(image shows partial of original)
160 x 224 mm., ca. 1650-51
On laid paper with margins (sheet: ca. 185 x 250); watermark: F A, not in Mannocci or Heawood
Only one impression is known of the first state impression.
All impressions of this print are rare - see Mannocci page 248
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Berger et bergere conversant (Shepherd and Shepherdess Conversing)
Mannocci 41, III/VII
199 x 263 mm., ca. 1651
On laid paper with thread margins; watermark: crown with star, M. 10
With plate tone and burr. Rare
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Berger et bergere conversant (Shepherd and Shepherdess Conversing)
Mannocci 41, V,B/VII
200 x 261 mm., ca. 1651
On laid paper with wide margins (sheet: ca. 246 x 315 mm.)
Provenance: H. Vever, with his stamp
Watermark: eagle, M. 21 mid 18th century, a later impression
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Mercure et Argus (Mercury and Argus)
Mannocci 42, II,A/III
156 x 218 mm., 1662
on laid paper trimmed between the platemark and the image's borderline;
Mannocci notes that the first state is only known by a counterproof.
In this impression the guiding lines are printing.
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Le Temps, Apollon et les Saisons (Time, Apollo and the Seasons)
Mannocci 43, V,B/VII
196 x 255 mm., 1662
On laid paper trimmed on the platemark
watermark: galloping horse, M. 23
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