A tale of two artists

A Christie's sale shows that, but for a disinclination to travel, we might talk of Callot with the same reverence as Claude

- Huon Mallalieu

THE long-defunct Duchy of Lorraine has a warm place in my affections, as my paternal ancestors came from the village of Malleloy just north of Nancy, its capital. Despite being regularly scrabbled over by more powerful neighbours, France, Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire, during the 17th century, it produced a number of artists who had a lasting influence on European culture.

In whichever form, the name of Claude Gellée (about 1600–82), otherwise Claude le Lorrain or, in England, simply Claude, has come to stand for the idealised ‘Arcadian’ classical vision that he spread over the real landscapes of central Italy, which percolated through the galleries of Europe as Grand Tourists’ souvenirs.

Claude was born a little south of Nancy, yet spent most of his career in Italy, unlike his older, shorter-lived compatriot Jacques Callot (about 1592–1635). Callot learned to etch during a nineyear stay in Florence, but then returned to live and work in Nancy, where his father had been master of ceremonies at the ducal court. The two artists probably didn’t overlap in Italy, but they shared artistic contacts there and would certainly have known each other when Claude briefly went home to work on frescos with Claude Deruet, an artist whose portrait was drawn by Callot.

Perhaps if Callot had spent more time abroad—his only other travel was a fairly brief visit to Paris—he, too, might have attracted the ‘le Lorrain’ label, especially as his influence was quite as long lived as Claude’s, if of a different sort. Some of his Italian prints were on a fairly large scale and very detailed, whereas his Lorraine works were mostly tiny, but again full of brilliant detail.