Claude LorrainFrench, 1600–1682Pastoral landscape
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Pastoral landscape” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
A densely wooded pastoral landscape. In the foreground, a woman rests on a rock beside her basket listening to a young goatherd playing the flute while cattle and goats graze around them. Another figure tending his herd is just discernable outside the remains of a fortified town on a hill in the background. When it was given to the Museum, this landscape was thought to be the work of Claude Lorrain but the signature and date inscribed on a rock are now recognised as later additions. Claude, the first great landscape painter, was highly esteemed in the 19th century and admired by British artists such as Turner and Constable. This painting is probably an 18th-century Netherlandish work, in the manner of Claude's pastoral landscapes. Rather than a copy of any specific composition, 1345-1869 appears to be a pastiche of different motifs characteristic of Claude.
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The crumbling fortifications on the hills in the background appear for example in many of Claude's works, and the tower-like structure features in a drawing (now in the British Museum, inv. 0o,7.230) from his Roman Campagna book which he seems to have reused in several of his upright views.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- 1345-1869
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
