Claude Gellée, called Claude Lorrain
Claude Gellée, Port de Mer au Fanal, etching

Le Port de Mer au Fanal

The Seaport with a Beacon

Mannocci 37 IIIA (R-D 11, D 11, B 13, K 138, R 22)

etching, ca. 1640, a very fine impression of the third state (A) of five*, printed quite cleanly, in refined detail, on medium-fine laid paper, with the full Roman watermark of a "cross on three mounts in a circle with the letter A" (cf. Mannocci, Appendix 11, identifying a Roman paper dating to the mid-1640s), slightly trimmed (0.5 mm., just inside the platemark), slight paper loss (upper left corner, ), some localized soiling and skinning on the reverse from an old mount, and old traces of mounting tape in the upper corners, otherwise in quite excellent condition

Provenance: the A.-J. Hachette collection (with the AH wetstamp verso, Lugt 132); the JJS collection (wetstamp verso, not in Lugt)

S. 138 x 197 mm. (Mannocci gives the plate dimensions as 139 x 198 mm.)

One of Claude Lorrain's best-known etchings, conceived at the height of his career, this rare lifetime impression* of Le Port de Mer au Fanal demonstrates his refined interest in atmospheric effects, here a sunset highlighting a bustling harbour scene, and offsetting the beacon, just off-centre, haloed by a radiance in the background.

The printings (or editions) of this remarkable etching are not known, notably the reason for the early second-state addition of a marginal "7".**


*  Manocci distinguishes the third state (A)  from (B) by "a vertical scratch in the central cloud," an alteration thus defining a later sub-state that was printed over a certain period.  The third state only differs from the 2nd by the rounding of the plate corners, ostensibly in view of publication, and this sub-state would thus constitute the first printing of this etching.

**  Mannocci considers that the addition of the marginal numbering (which he dates to 1639-1641) corresponds to an editorial project, as yet unattested.  He further identifies impressions of the third state (A) in Amsterdam, Paris (Bibliotheque Nationale, which we have examined), and Vienna.