Brief Biography-Claude Gellée (Claude Lorrain) was born in the village of Champagne in Lorraine in 1600. Joachim von Sandrart, who became a friend of Claude and went on sketching parties with him, wrote that at the age of twelve, he was an apprentice pastry cook in the artist’s household, Agostino Tassi, in Rome. It is, however, uncertain how Claude arrived at the house of Tassi. He was most famous as the rapist of Artemisia Gentileschi. Claude soon became his assistant and received tuition from him. He worked with Tassi on decorating the Villa Lante of Cardinal Montalto at Bagnaia in 1619 and, in 1623, went to Naples, where the bay profoundly inspired him for the rest of his life. Two years later, he travelled to Lorraine, completed his apprenticeship with Claude Deruet and returned to Rome, where he was to settle. The mannerist style of Adam Elsheimer and Paul Bril, with whom Agostino Tassi was a disciple, affected his paintings. The works of Hans Rottenhammer, who collaborated with the Bamboccianti group of Northern painters in Rome, may have also influenced Claude due to Han’s mythological content. Though his drawings of figures, somehow not being considered resolute, were thought to be sometimes inserted as staffage by other artists. He became a friend of Nicolas Poussin, and by the thirties, he achieved considerable success. He was obliged to record his works in his Liber Veritatis to protect himself from counterfeiters. His Book of Truth is a detailed description of each painting, including sketches and notes regarding patrons. One of his many later noted patrons was the Duke of Paliano and Grand Constable of Naples, Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. The duke commissioned at least ten large paintings from Claude. Claude’s paintings strongly influenced the works of Richard Wilson, and JMW Turner.