Art of Claude Lorrain, The

Synopsis

In this film the art of Claude Lorrain is examined with a commentary by Anthony Blunt. Illustrating his points with a wide range of Claude’s works, Blunt talks about the composition of the painter’s classical landscapes not as the direct rendering of a particular place at a particular time but as an ideal distillation of the landscape around Rome, where Claude lived for most of his life. He shows how Claude boldly accepted the flatness of the scenery, painting unbroken plains receding from the eye, in which the increasing distance is skilfully represented through subtle changes in scale, colour, tone and focus. In a comparison between Claude and Poussin, Blunt demonstrates that Claude’s concern with patterns of light cast through trees, or on to ruined buildings, or on to the sea, and his inclusion of the sun itself within the painting differs from the weighty sense of growth and structure in Poussin’s work. Concentrating on a particular picture ‘Aeneas’ Arrival in Rome’, Blunt surveys Claude’s sketches for the painting and the steps he took towards its final composition, and looks at some intriguing amendments in sketches made after the picture was completed.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

1970

Subjects

Art

Keywords

art history; landscapes; Lorrain, Claude (1600-1682); paintings - landscape paintings; art - French

Credits

Director

Dudley Shaw Ashton

Writer

Anthony Blunt

Contributor

Anthony Blunt

Distribution Formats

Type

DVD

Format

Region 2 PAL

Price

£50.00

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

25 minutes

Year

2012

Production Company

Name

Balfour Films

Sponsor

Name

Arts Council

Distributor

Name

Concord Media

Email

sales@concordmedia.org.uk

Web

http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/ External site opens in new window

Phone

01473 726 012

Address

Rosehill Centre
22 Hines Road
Ipswich
IP3 9BG

Notes

A long-established, not-for-profit organisation with a large collection DVDs, specialising in the sectors of general and mental health, child care, race relations, war and peace, addictions, the third world, ecology, civil rights, personal relationships, educational issues, and social work training. Concord also handles titles made for the Graves Medical Audio-visual Library. Sale on DVD. Formerly known as Concord Video and Film Council. In 2014 Concord began to offer selected films as Video on Demand, via Vimeo.