View of a Port with the Capitol (of the City of Rome in Italy)

Claude Lorrain was French, but came to Italy at an early age and lived in Rome from the age of 13. There he began an apprenticeship with Agostino Tassi, who designed illusionistic ceiling paintings. In 1625 he returned only briefly to France to work as an assistant to the artist Claude Deruet . But he did not stay long and soon went back to Rome, where he remained until the end of his life. Lorrain was a very thoughtful and sensitive person, for example he translated biblical or mythological subjects into sensitive, pictorial scenes. In his early thirties he had established himself as a leading landscape painter. He received commissions from Philip IV of Spain. Lorrain contributed at least seven large landscape paintings to the decoration of his palace. He also painted ten large pictures for the Duke of Paliano, Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. In contrast to the earlier, in northern tradition rather small, detailed works, Lorrain had a lively, bold and monumental style, which became even more epic and heroic with increasing age. Lorrain had a daughter named Agnese who was born in 1653. Two of his nephews also lived with him. With increasing age, however, he created fewer and fewer pictures. He died at the age of 82 years.