Landscape with the Voyage of Jacob

1677

This landscape, with its winding river, elegant trees, and grand castle, is an idealized vision of the countryside near Rome, where Claude spent most of his career. All of the artist’s landscapes include narrative subjects: in this case, Jacob’s journey to the land of Canaan. The tiny camels on the right hint at the biblical story, but the painting is essentially a celebration of nature at its most poetic.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	28 1/16 x 37 7/16 in. (71.2 x 95.1 cm) Frame: 39 x 48 7/8 x 5 1/8 in. (99.1 x 124.1 x 13 cm)
Object Number	1955.42
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with the Voyage of Jacob, 1677, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.42

Select Bibliography

Derby (England).. Fine Arts Exhibition.. 1870.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.. France in the Golden Age: 17th-Century French Painting in American Collections. May 26-Aug. 22, 1982. (Also at Grand Palais, Paris; Art Institute of Chicago--our painting not lent).. 1982.. New York: Colnaghi.. Claude to Corot: The Development of Landscape Painting in France. Nov. 1-Dec. 15, 1990. (Cat. by Alan Wintermute).. 1990.. Owen J. Dullea.. Claude Gellée le Lorrain.. London: Samson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.. 1887.. Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America: The Clark Collection Opens" in Connoisseur CXXXVI, no. 550 (December 1955): 305–10. "Nineteenth-Century Art in the Berkshires." Think. New York: IBM Corp. Oct. 1955. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Doretta Cecchi.. L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain.. Milan: Rizzoli.. 1975.. Marcel Röthlisberger.. L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain. (Classici dell'Arte series.). Rizzoli.. 1975.. Michael Kitson.. Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis.. London: British Museum Publication.. 1978.. Brooks, John H. Highlights: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1981. Richard Shiff.. "The Technique of Originality: Innocence and Artifact in the Painting of Corot, Monet, and Cézanne.". 8:4.. Studies in Visual Communication.. Autumn 1982.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Janet Wright.. L'architecture pittoresque au Canada.. Quebec: Parks Canada.. 1984.. Richard Shiff.. Cézanne and the End of Impressionism: A Study of the Theory, Technique, and Critical Evaluation of Modern Art.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.. 1984.. Janet Wright.. L'architecture pittoresque au Canada.. Quebec: Parks Canada.. 1984.. Melanie Louise Simo.. Loudon and the Landscape: From Country Seat to Metropolis, 1783-1843.. New Haven: Yale University Press.. 1988.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Held, Julius S. "Old Masters in the Clark Collection, Part I: Paintings." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 504–9. Benes, Mirka. "Pastoralism in the Roman Baroque Villa and in Claude Lorrain." In Festschrift for Eduard Sekler. MIT Press. Röthlisberger, Marcel. Claude Lorrain: The Paintings.. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press.. 1961. Hunter-Stiebel, Penelope, ed. The Triumph of French Painting:17th Century Masterpieces from the Museums of FRAME. Portland Art Museum, October 11, 2003-January 5, 2004; Birmingham Museum of Art, January 25-April 4, 2004; Meadows Museum, April 30- July 25, 2004.. Portland Art Museum and Editions de la Réunion des Musées, Paris. 2003. Rand, Richard. Claude Lorrain, The Painter as Draftsman: Drawings from the British Museum. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press; WIlliamwtown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2006. Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. Volume 8. London: Smith and Son, 1837. Polley, Robert L., ed. Great Art Treasures in America's Smaller Museums. Text by Harold E. Haydon. New York: Putnam's, 1967. Melikian, Souren. "A Unique and Unforgettable Collection." International Herald Tribune, 16–17 September 2000.

Provenance

According to the Liber Veritatis, painted for the "abbé Chevallie," probably Dominique Chevalier (1620–1691), prelate of Saint-Martin, Tours; Robert Strange, probably after 1769; Strange sale, Christie's, London, March 6,1773, lot 115; Count Chesterfield, until 1918; by descent to the fifth Earl Carnarvon; Earl Carnarvon sale, Christie's, London, May 31, 1918, lot 97; Leggatt; Colnaghi; sold to Robert Sterling Clark in 1918.