Pastoral Landscape

Unlike Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain was apparently not very interested in depicting landscapes in dramatic weather—storms, rain, and thunder. What Sir Joshua Reynolds called “the accidents of nature” in 1787 are absent from Claude’s universe. In the serene world of his paintings, fine weather reigns forever, uninterrupted—which is also the case in his drawings, apart from a few exceptions. This drawing is one of those rare exceptions, and even here it shows a storm that threatens but has not yet broken.