American

George Loring Brown

U.S. 1814-1889
View of Neptune at Sunrise 51.0929

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This Massachusetts native is often referred to as "Claude" Brown because of his emulation of the seventeenth-century French landscape painter, Claude Gellée (Claude le Lorraine). Claude was the most famous and influential exponent of ideal landscapes, and his compositions and light drenched colors became the model for Dutch Italianate and English artists well into the nineteenth century. Brown worked in Europe in the 1840s and, until 1859, lived in Rome and Florence. His scenes from these years are Romantic views of Italian cities or seaports, populated by peasants who toil or go about their business amidst classical monuments, as in this painting. Brown studied painting both in America and in Europe, joining, in 1833, the atelier or studio of the notable French artist Eugène Isabey. Upon his return home, he supported himself by painting portraits and working as an engraver and lithographer. Brown later returned to Europe, living there until 1859. He came back to the U.S., where he continued to paint and exhibit elegiac landscapes reminiscent of his idol, Claude.

 

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