LORENESE, GELLÉE CLAUDE, known as il. — Painter, b. at Chamagne (Lorraine) in 1600, d. in Rome on 23 November 1682.
His artistic life unfolded almost entirely in Italy. In 1613–14 he is already recorded in Rome; in 1616–17 he was in Naples with the German painter Gottfried Waals; in 1619 he was again in Rome, in the workshop of Agostino Tassi, whose realistic taste informed the manner of L. for more than a decade: from the first securely attributed work, the small etching of the Tempesta (1630), to the Sole sorgente (c. 1634), the Campo Vaccino (c. 1636), the Festa del villaggio (1639), all in the Louvre, and to the series of landscapes in the Galleria Doria (1646–48: paesaggio con Diona e Ippolito; Mecurio con le giovenche di Apollo, etc.). Yet already in the works of that period the investigations that were later to revolutionize landscape painting appear mature; the natural appearance of things is transfigured by light, experienced not only as color but as atmosphere, at times anticipating the manner of Corot (cf. Aci e Galatea of 1657, in Dresden, and the series in the Ermitage, from 1661–72) and even that of Turner (cf. Ulisse riconduce Criside, c. 1646; Sbarco di Cleopatra, c. 1647, in the Louvre; Imbarco della regina di Saba, c. 1648, in the National Gallery). It is in this vibrant light that the great trees or fantastic rocks, and the architectural structures that serve as wings for landscapes with extremely distant horizons, acquire poetic value. The tiny figures of boatmen, horsemen, and shepherds placed in the foreground seem foreign to the life of these landscapes, but are very small and in reality do not participate in the essential life of the picture. Analogous qualities recur in L.’s etchings and drawings, found for the most part in Paris (Louvre, Cabinet des Estampes, Ecole des Beaux Arts), in Oxford, at the Library of Windsor, and in the Uffizi.
L.’s extremely abundant output is preserved in the Louvre and in the English museums; other highly notable works are in Dresden, Brussels (Enea a caccia di un cerro), and Russia (Ermitage, and the Yussupoff and Stroganoff Collections). In Rome, the landscapes in the Gallerie Doria and Colonna are of great importance. Many works have been lost, including, in Rome, the decorations of the Crescenzi Palace at the Pantheon and of the Muti Palace at SS. Apostoli.