Smith, John: A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters: in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 8) (London: Smith and Son, 1837)

OBSERVATIONS.

A very brief knowledge of the Works of Claude
Lorraine must convince the amateur that the super-
lative beauty and excellence which most of them
exhibit, could only have been the result of the most
indefatigable study, governed by great taste and
genius; for, however admirably they represent nature,
it is a question whether any picture by his hand was
a faithful transcript of the scene from whence it was
taken. His works may therefore be considered com-
binations of beautiful objects, borrowed from the in-
exhaustible source of nature, and exhibited under the
most lovely forms and alluring medium*. If the
scene represents the early morning, when “Aurora
with her rosy fingers unbars the gates of day,” the
hemisphere is suffused with light and heat, and all
nature visibly feels their influence; the mists are seen
dispersing, and the cooling freshness of the dawn of
* Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his Discourses, observes, that Claude
Lorraine “ was convinced, that taking nature as he found it seldom
produced beauty. His pictures are a composition of the various
drafts which he had previously made from various beautiful scenes
and prospects.”