Landscape with Nymph and Satyr Dancing

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Landscape with Nymph and Satyr Dancing

Artist Claude Lorrain (French (active Rome), 1604-1682)

Place of OriginItaly

Date1641

DimensionsPainting: 39 1/4 × 52 3/8 in. (99.7 × 133 cm)
Frame: 50 1/4 × 64 3/4 × 5 in. (127.6 × 164.5 × 12.7 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1949.170

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 24

Label TextClaude Lorrain helped pioneer the development of the “ideal” landscape: balanced, harmonious compositions often featuring classical ruins and figures from ancient history or mythology. Here, a flute-playing shepherd and his companion make music with a reclining nymph (female nature spirit). A lusty satyr (a forest spirit that is part goat) coaxes a rather reluctant nymph to dance with him. The late afternoon sunlight falls on the group through the columns of the crumbling temple, setting this enchanted glade apart from the civilized world represented by the distant town. It is the clarity of light in his paintings and its unifying effect that set Claude apart from many other landscape artists of the time. Born Claude Gellée, Claude moved to Rome from his native Lorraine, France at the age of about 12. He is said to have started as a pastry cook in the house of Italian painter Agostino Tassi, and then to have become Tassi’s studio assistant. By the 1630s he was the most sought after landscape artist in Italy, if not all of Europe.Published ReferencesSmith, J., A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, London, 1829-1837, VIII, p. 221.

Pattison, Mme. M., Claude Lorrain, sa vie et ses oeuvres, Paris, 1884, pp. 212, 229.

Dullea, O.T., Claude Gellée Le Lorrain, London, 1887, pp. 105, 122.

Illustrated London News, vol. 131, October 18, 1952, p. 637, repr.

Godwin, Molly Ohl, Master Works in the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1953, p. 20, repr. (col.) p. 21.

"French Paintings: For a New Gallery in the Toledo Museum, Ohio," Illustrated London News, vol. 227, August 1955, p. 271, repr.

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Toledo Museum of Art: Post-War Additions," Connoisseur, vol. 136, no. 548, October 1955, pp. 133-140.

Myers, Bernard S., ed., Encyclopedia of Painting, New York, Crown Publishers, 1955, p. 311, repr. (col.).

Charmet, Raymond, "L'Art Francais au Musée de Toledo," Art Spectacles, no. 556, February 22, 1956, p. 14, repr.

Grigaut, Paul L., "Baroque and Rococo France in Toledo," Art Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1956, p. 50.

"French Art 1600-1800," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960, p. 80, repr. (also published as handbook).

M. Röthlisberger, Claude Lorrain: The Paintings, New Haven, 1961, I, pp. 195-196, II, fig. 123.

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr. (col.).

Christensen, Erwin O., A Guide to Art Museums in the United States, New York, 1968, p. 175, repr. no. 367.

Nodelman, Sheldon, "After the High Roman Fashion," Art News, vol. 67, no. 7, November 1968, p. 35.

M. Röthlisberger, "Nuovi aspetti di Claude Lorrain," Paragone, no. 273, Nov. 1972, p. 31.

M. Röthlisberger, and D. Cecchi, L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain, Milan, 1975, no. 119, pls. IV-V, VI.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 37-38, pl. 188.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 63, (col.).

Salerno, Luigi, Pittori de paesaggio del Seicento a Roma, Rome, 1977-1978, vol. I, p. 379, repr. fig. 64.14.

Kitson, Michael, Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis, London, 1978, p. 87.

Vial, Jane, "Musical Instruments: Woodwinds," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 20, no. 4, 1978, pp. 99, 110, repr. fig. 10 (det.).

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 52.

Rosenberg, Pierre, "Inventaire des tableaux francaise du XVIIe siècle appartenant aux collections publiques des Etats-Unis," in La peinture francaise du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, Paris, 1982, p. 362, no. 3, repr.

"Claude Lorrain, 1600-1682," Mizue, Spring, 1983, no. 926, repr. (col.) pp. 48, 49, (col. det.) p. 50. Text in Japanese.

Schleier, Erich, "La Peinture Francaise du XVIIe Siècle dans les Collections Americaines" (review), Kunstchronik, vol. 36, no. 5, May 1983, p. 232.

Lagerlof, Margaretha Rossholm, Ideal Landscape: Annibale Carracci, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, New Haven, 1990, p. 174, pl. 96.

Pestilli, Livio, "Shaftesbury 'Agente' d'arte: sulla provenienza vicereale di due quadri di Salvator Rosa ed uno (scomparso?) di Claude Lorrain," Bolletino d'Arte, Serie VI, vol. 77, no. 71, Jan.-Feb., 1992, pp. 134-137, 139, no. 55.

Reid, Jane Davidson, The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300-1990s, New York, 1993, vol. 2, p. 979.

Marcoci, Roxana, Gardens in Bloom, New York, 1995, p. 14, repr. p. 15 (col.).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 93, repr. (col.).

MacDonald, William Lloyd, Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy, New Haven, 1995, p. 267, fig. 351.

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, p. 16.

Harris, Ann Sutherland, "Landscapes and Ruins: Houston and Sarasota," Burlington, vol. 147, no. 1229, Aug. 2005, p. 579.

Rand, Richard, Claude Lorrain: The Painter as Draftsman, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2007, pp. 129, 132-133, 217, fig. 81 (col.) p. 131.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 167, repr. (col.).

Musee du Louvre, Claude Gellee dit Le Lorrain, dessinateur face a la nature, Paris, Musee du Louvre, 2011, p.181-182, repr. (col.) no. 52, p. 181.

Gamwell, Lynn, Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, and the Spiritual, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2020, p. 124, repr. (col.) no. 4-35, p. 125.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1881, no. 163.

New York, Wildenstein, Gods and Heroes, Baroque Images in Antiquity, 1968, no. 8, pl. 44.

Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, Claude Lorrain 1600-1682, 1982, no. p. 28, pp. 142-143, repr. and det.

Paris, Louvre, 1982-83.

Washington, D. C., Phillips Collection/National Gallery [simultaneous exhib.], The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice and the Modern Vision, 1988, no. 52, p. 108, fig. 100 (col.) [shown at NGA, documentation of exhibition entitled Places of Delight: The Pastoral Landscape].

Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Claude Lorrain and the Ideal Landscape, 1998, no. 39, pp. 78, 195, 215-216.

Oberlin, Allen Memorial Art Museum; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Splendor of Ruins in French Landscape Painting, March 19 -October 15, 2005, no. 14, pp. 2, 37, 89, 93-96, repr. (col.) p. 94, (det., col.) p. xiv.

San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor; Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Claude Lorrain - the Painter as Draftsman, 2006-2007.

Paris, Musée du Louvre; Haarlem, Teylers Museum, Claude Gellée, dit le Lorrain: Le dessinateur face à la nature, 2011-2012.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, From the Collection: 300 Years of French Landscape Painting, Jul. 17-Oct. 11, 2015.

Comparative ReferencesSee also, Kennedy, I.G., "Claude and Architecture," Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes, XXV, 1973, pp. 260-283, esp. 261-263 (Temple of Libyl).