Claude Lorrain

(Lorraine, c. 1600 - Rome, 21 or 23 November 1682)

Claude Lorrain (also Claude Gellee or Le Lorrain) (Lorraine, c. 1600 - Rome, 21 or 23 November 1682) was an artist of the Baroque era who was active in Italy, and is admired for his achievements in landscape painting. (16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 - 13 December 1944) was a French painter, printmaker and art theorist. One of the most famous 20th-century artists, he is credited with painting the first modern abstract works.

Lorrain was born in 1604 or 1605 into poverty in the town of Chamagne, Vosges in Lorraine - then the Duchy of Lorraine, an independent state until 1766. He was one of five children. His actual name was Claude Gellee, but he is better known by the province in which he was born. Orphaned by age of twelve, he went to live at Freiburg with an elder brother, Jean Gellee, a woodcarver. He afterwards went to Rome to seek a livelihood and then to Naples, where he apprenticed for two years, from 1619 to 1621, under Goffredo (Gottfried) Wals. He returned to Rome in April 1625 and was apprenticed to Augustin Tassi. He got into a fight with Leonaert Bramer.