FREE ESSAY ON CLAUDE AND THE CLASSICAL DREAM

CLAUDE AND THE CLASSICAL DREAM

In Kathleen Nicholson's book, Turner's Classical Landscapes, is an interpretation of
Turner's concepts and ability of landscape painting in contrast to Claude. In particular,
chapter six, Nicholson discusses Turner's artistic career and how it models Claudean
classical landscape. Nicholson conveys her opinion on how Turner re-created Claude's a
realm to maintain a balance between homage and revision, between landscape as a tradition
and landscape as a modern form of expression. Kathleen Nicholson, in this chapter, takes
the reader through many aspects of Turner's re-creation of Claude's classical landscape
into his own modern form.
Turner understood Claude's qualities as an artist. He clearly knew the extent to which
Claude's art came from, with extensive study of nature, part by part, and a realization
that informed his own process of idealization. Nicholson states,  Allow he showed proper
respect to Poussin, his heart went out to Claude (222) because Turner saw Claude's work
as the realm of the classical landscape. Many other artists, such as Constable, looked at
Claude's works for inspiration in aspects ranging from the design of rivers to the
finish. Other artists continuously copied Claude's landscape paintings as a basis for
representation of their own landscape.
Turner instilled Claude's work into two compositional formats, a seaport and an inland
setting, which he would personalize and update while at the same time leaving no doubt
about their source. However, at the beginning of Turner's career, he believed that
Claude's work was beyond the power of imitation. At first, he followed Poussin's order
and rationality in his 1800 and 1802 Plague pictures. Poussin may have seemed more
comprehensible to Turner before being exposed to more of Claude's paintings. After a
visit to the Lourve, Turner's paintings appeared more and more like Claude's, especially
in the Thames River paintings, where Turner used an air of eternal beauty to
counterbalance the changeable effects of English weather.
Nicholson finds Turner's sketchbook as the example of how Turner's idealization derives
from the kind of exchange between the natural and the imaginary. She states, His
projection of a harmoniously arranged natural environment never subjects to the ravages
of time imparted an elegance and breadth to his observation of the real world (223).
Nicholson finds his sketchbook to be a journey that embarks through imagination and the
sensual. The first pages of the book depict a little ship ready for departure. Nicholson
notes that in comparison of Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba,
where Claude seems to beckon one to sail away, Turner elaborates on the ornate design of
the classical seaport. Turner appeals more to the enclosed and to what is present to us.
Turner's work progressed and finally reached Reynolds's fairyland where myth fully
inhabits the landscape in his painting, Mercury and Herse. He begun this painting with
the classical forms and qualities of Claude and proceeded to incorporate the myth into
the landscape. Turner was crating both story and landscape.