February 4–April 29, 2007

Many of Claude's drawings and some of his paintings show artists sketching in the landscape. In the seventeenth century this was still a rare practice, and Claude's consistent interest in recording the world around him directly through observational studies was ambitious and innovative at the time. He is also said to have painted oil sketches out of doors, but no convincing example has yet been discovered. Claude's studies of artists at work in the open air might be thought of almost as a series of self-portraits, in which we watch the artist work in the landscape.

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Introduction