A Classical Landscape with Figures Crossing a Stream, later 17th century

The French painter, draftsman, and etcher Claude spent most of his life in Italy and was one of the earliest artists in the European tradition to focus primarily on the landscape as a subject. His choice of style and subject matter derived from a tradition of northern artists trained in the tradition of Northern Mannerism but practicing in Italy, most frequently in Rome. Claude typically sought to elevate his landscapes into the more prestigious genre of history painting through the incorporation of small figures, usually representing a scene drawn from the Bible or from mythology. His focus was a pastoral world of fields and valleys not far from towns and castles, allowing him to populate the scene with classicizing architecture, as he does here. It has not yet been possible to attribute this painting definitively to Claude or to one of his followers.