Claude Lorrain and Thomas Gainsborough
About the Artists
Claude Lorrain, Self-Portrait. Date unknown. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Claude Lorrain was a French-born painter, draftsman, and etcher, widely regarded as one of the leading artists of the Baroque period. Born Claude Gellée in the Duchy of Lorraine (which is why he adopted the surname "Lorrain"), he moved to Italy at a young age and spent most of his career in Rome. Claude was at the center of a community of Northern European artists in Rome, befriending figures such as Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665) and Herman van Swanevelt (1603–1655). Known for his landscape paintings, Claude often combined classical ruins, serene figures, and distant vistas, blending natural beauty with a mythological sense of grandeur. His use of light and atmosphere set him apart from his contemporaries, and his work was deeply influential to the development of landscape painting in Western art.
Thomas Gainsborough, Self-Portrait. 1754. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Thomas Gainsborough was an English painter, draftsman, and printmaker, best known for his portraits and landscapes. Born in Sudbury, Suffolk, he moved to London in his youth and gained fame for his skillful portraiture, capturing the likenesses of aristocracy and wealthy individuals. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), he is considered one of the leading British portraitists of the eighteenth century. Despite being a prolific portrait painter, Gainsborough gained greater satisfaction from drawing and painting landscapes. In his later years, Gainsborough famously wrote to a friend: "I am sick of portraits, I wish very much to take my viol-da-gamba and walk off to some sweet village, where I can paint landskips and enjoy the fag end of life in quietness and ease."