Claude Gellée, called Claude Lorrain

Reputedly acquired in Italy by the Comte de Budé de Ferney, soon after 1805 and listed in a Ms. catalogue of 1862;
Thence by descent to the Comte Henri de Budé de Ferney;
Thence by descent to Dr André Schlemmer, Paris;
Anonymous sale (The property of a French collector), London, Christie's, 7 July 1972, lot 63;
With Richard L. Feigen, New York;
Acquired by the present owner in 1982.

T. Lejeune, Guide théorique et pratique de l'amateur de tableaux, Paris 1864, p. 150, where incorrectly described as the Port of Anconda;
M. Röthlisberger, 'De Bril à Claude: Tableaux inédits', in Revue de l'Art, no. 5, Paris 1969, pp. 59–60, note 14, reproduced fig. 16;
M. Röthlisberger and D. Cecchi, L'Opera Completa di Claude Lorrain, Milan 1975, p. 89, no. 43.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Claude Gellee, Claude Lorrain. A Mediterranean Seaport. This painting has a firm lining and stretcher. The craquelure is predominately vertical, which might perhaps indicate rolling at some point in the past. The original stretcher bar lines are slightly more marked along the top than elsewhere. The overall texture is remarkably good, with strength in the paint surface suggesting a long stable early history. There has been remarkably little intervention apparent over time and no accidental damage at all. Specks of very dark old varnish can just be seen in the crevices in places, with evidence of much later cleaning in the rather blurred image of the ship in the middle distance, where the rigging has been slightly worn. The nearer galleons on either side have quite strong rigging, but another further ship seen through the arch is also a little thin. There are just one or two small retouchings in the upper sky visible under ultra violet light, a few minor touches at the top edge, and a little retouching by the central bird. Elsewhere virtually throughout however the condition is exceptionally pure and unworn. The transitions in the sunset sky are finely preserved as is the far distance and the rich blues of the waves. The browns of the foreground, generally most vulnerable, remain beautifully intact, as does the arch itself in every detail. Some of the figures at its base have become rather ghostly, having grown naturally more transparent with age. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This beautifully evocative depiction of a Mediterranean harbour is an early work by Claude. In its choice of subject matter it forms part of a group of similar paintings in which Claude was to develop one of the most important and popular themes in his œuvre. Röthlisberger has suggested a date of execution circa 1633–1635, shortly before the artist began the compilation of his Liber Veritatis, and notes its evident affinities with several other works from this period or shortly thereafter.¹ The earliest of these is the larger Seaport of 1633 (canvas, 99 by 124.5 cm.) now in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch.² The closest parallels are, however, found in two slightly later works, both of very similar dimensions to the present painting: the Harbour scene of 1636 (canvas, 76 by 98 cm.) formerly in the collection of the City of Glasgow³, and the Seaport of circa 1637 (canvas, 74 by 99 cm.) now in an English private collection.⁴ The ex-Glasgow picture is now lost, but is known through various old copies, the best of which is probably that now in New York, Hyde Park, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.⁵ In each of these a harbour scene, bathed in early morning or evening light and animated by only a few figures, is seen from a slightly elevated viewpoint, the sides framed by architectural or natural elements and the centre opening on to a distant vista of a coastline or city. The compositional device of a ship moored just behind an architectural feature recurs, for example, in all three works. The framing motif of ships and their rigging on the left of the composition can also be found in other works assigned to this period, such as the Coast scene of 1634 in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.⁶ These paintings are among Claude’s very earliest treatments of this type of subject, and their dating would appear to be limited to around the middle of the 1630s. Within only a few years he had begun to develop compositions with more numerous figures and more elaborate and palatial architectural elements, for example the famous Seaports of 1638 and 1639 now in the Uffizi and the Louvre.⁷

In the present work, as in the others in this group, there seems to be no attempt to include any classical or historical subject, as would later be the case with Claude’s famous works in this vein in the following decade. Rather, they should perhaps be seen as the artist’s first developments of a theme that was to have a profound and enduring impact both on his contemporaries and later generations, most notably, of course, his compatriot Claude-Joseph Vernet and, nearly two centuries later, the young Turner in England.

¹ M. Röthlisberger, 'De Bril à Claude: Tableaux inédits', in Revue de l'Art, no. 5, Paris 1969.
² M. Röthlisberger, Claude Lorrain: The Paintings, London, 1961, vol. I, pp. 463–64, no. 202, vol. II, reproduced fig. 23.
³ Liber Veritatis 6, British Museum, London, and Röthlisberger 1961, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 106–08.
⁴ Liber Veritatis 19, reproduced in M. Kitson, 'Claude Lorrain: Two unpublished paintings and the Problem of Variants', in Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art presented to Sir Anthony Blunt, 1967, pp. 144–45, fig. 9.
⁵ Röthlisberger, op. cit. 1961, vol. II, reproduced fig. 379.                     
⁶ Liber Veritatis 5, idem, vol. II, fig. 32.
⁷ Idem, vol. II, reproduced figs 75 and 93.