![Claude - A Seaport [1644]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7468/15119653114_788c833274_o.jpg)
Claude (1604/5 - 1682) has depicted an imaginary port at sunset. The artist painted a number of imaginary seaports. The palace front at the left has been adapted from a gateway built in about 1570 and leading to the Farnese Gardens from the Forum in Rome. Behind it is the antique Arch of Titus. On the nearer building, a clock with a single hand gives the time as five o'clock.
Claude Gellée was born in the Duchy of Lorraine but left around 1612 for Germany, then Rome, where he became a studio assistant to the landscapist Agostino Tassi. He visited Naples and returned to Nancy before settling permanently in Rome around 1628. He sketched in the Roman countryside with Poussin. Ideas from the drawings he made were integrated into oil paintings finished in the studio.
[National Gallery, London - Oil on canvas, 103 x 131 cm]