The landscapes of Claude Lorrain, along with the philosophical paintings of his contemporary Poussin, were one of the peaks of French classicism. True, it is difficult to find more dissimilar artists than these two masters who shared primacy in the art of their era. Poussin, a deep and focused thinker, lived in a world of strict, high culture, testing every step in his work with theory, subordinating involuntary inspiration to the discipline of analytical thought.
Claude Zelle was a simple, semi-literate man, self-taught, with difficulty signing his own paintings. In Italy, where he spent most of his life, Lorrain came as a servant and pastry chef, and his first steps in art are already of a mature age. What Poussin came to the complex and intense work of thought, Lorrain reached a direct instinct. Possessing a rare receptivity, he spontaneously assimilated the harmonious and clear aesthetics of classicism, filling it with that cheerfulness that inspired in him a love for nature and continuous communication with her.
Four Hermitage landscapes depicting different times of the day – morning, noon, evening, and night – are among the best of the best paintings of Lorrain. It has not yet been established whether these canvases were conceived by the artist as a whole or whether they were accidentally, and very successfully, brought together by collectors of a later time. But one way or another, they remain evidence of the keen attention with which Lorren studied changes in nature.
“Morning” – the most poetic and subtle among these canvases. In obedience to the classical tradition, Lorrain introduced the so-called historical plot into the picture – an obligatory composition that animates the landscape. He chose a Bible Episode for this: Jacob, herding a flock of sheep, meets Laban’s daughters, and this meeting marks the beginning of his long love for Rachel. But in the story for the artist, only the association with those thoughts and experiences that the picture of nature awakening at the dawn of nature causes in it is important. As in other works, Lorrain entrusts the execution of the pieces to the Italian Philip Lauri. He himself is completely absorbed in the landscape, idyllically peaceful, spiritualized and sublime.
Light and light colors, with their soft nuances, give the forms lightness and weightlessness. Lorrain reinforces this impression, assigning a huge place to the sky and postponing the image {buildings of the building, the bridge, the hills, so that they turn into a transparent, unspoken, but breathtaking panorama. The trees in the center of the picture and columns of the distant temple acquire slender proportions, elegance of lines and purity of the silhouette. Lorrain unrecognizably transforms and renews the classic landscape, filling it with the living breath of nature.
The painting entered the Hermitage in 1815 from the collection of Empress Josephine at Malmaison Castle near Paris.
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