A Rare Georgian ‘Claude Loraine’ Glass
A Rare Georgian ‘Claude Loraine’ Glass the Oval Black Glass Housed within a Tortoiseshell Case with Horn Frame and Brass Mounts
England Circa 1800
Size: 10cm wide, 6.5cm deep, 2 cm high - 4 ins wide, 2½ ins deep, ¾ ins high
NOTE: Further examples of Claude Loraine Glasses are always required for stock - please email with details
England Circa 1800
Size: 10cm wide, 6.5cm deep, 2 cm high - 4 ins wide, 2½ ins deep, ¾ ins high
NOTE: Further examples of Claude Loraine Glasses are always required for stock - please email with details
The size and shape of this oval ‘Claude Loraine’ would indicate its use as a perfect traveling glass, easily inserted into a pocket. The theory of painting ‘En plein air’ is credited to Pierre-Henri de Valanciennes (1750-1819) who first expounded in a treatise entitled; ‘Reflections and Advice to a Student on Painting, Particularly on Landscape (1800) where he developed the concept of landscape portraiture by which the artist paints directly onto canvas ‘in situ’ within the landscape.
The Claude glass is named for Claude Lorrain, a 17th century landscape painter, whose name in the late 18th century became synonymous with the picturesque aesthetic, although there is no indication he used or knew of it or anything similar. The Claude glass was supposed to help artists produce works of art similar to those of Lorrain. William Gilpin, the inventor of the picturesque ideal, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, ‘they give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge like the colouring of that Master’. Gilpin mounted a mirror in his carriage, from where he could take in ‘a succession of high-coloured pictures ... continually gliding before the eye’.
A Claude glass (or black mirror) is a small mirror, slightly convex in shape, with its surface tinted a dark colour. Bound up like a pocket-book or in a carrying case, Claude glasses were used by artists, travellers and connoisseurs of landscape and landscape painting. Claude glasses have the effect of reducing and simplifying the colour and tonal range of scenes and scenery to give them a painterly quality. The user would turn their back on the scene to observe the framed view through the tinted mirror, in a sort of pre-photographic lens, which added the picturesque aesthetic of a subtle gradation of tones.
The Claude glass is named for Claude Lorrain, a 17th century landscape painter, whose name in the late 18th century became synonymous with the picturesque aesthetic, although there is no indication he used or knew of it or anything similar. The Claude glass was supposed to help artists produce works of art similar to those of Lorrain. William Gilpin, the inventor of the picturesque ideal, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, ‘they give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge like the colouring of that Master’. Gilpin mounted a mirror in his carriage, from where he could take in ‘a succession of high-coloured pictures ... continually gliding before the eye’.
A Claude glass (or black mirror) is a small mirror, slightly convex in shape, with its surface tinted a dark colour. Bound up like a pocket-book or in a carrying case, Claude glasses were used by artists, travellers and connoisseurs of landscape and landscape painting. Claude glasses have the effect of reducing and simplifying the colour and tonal range of scenes and scenery to give them a painterly quality. The user would turn their back on the scene to observe the framed view through the tinted mirror, in a sort of pre-photographic lens, which added the picturesque aesthetic of a subtle gradation of tones.
Ex Private English collection
A Rare Georgian ‘Claude Loraine’ Glass
SOLD
