The Port of Genoa, Seen from the Sea

Most of the harbours Claude painted were invented, put together in the studio from Roman palaces and imagined coasts. This one is a real place. It is Genoa seen from the water, with the tall Lanterna lighthouse and the old Molo quarter by the port, set down with a topographical faithfulness the Louvre calls unusual in his work. No document shows that Claude ever went to Genoa, and one scholar has suggested a Genoese patron, perhaps Giovanni Stefano Roccatagliata. A brown wash drawing at Holkham Hall in England was probably made to prepare it. When it was painted is a genuine argument. Marcel Röthlisberger first placed it around 1634, Diane Russell moved it back to about 1627 to 1629, Michael Kitson insisted it could not be earlier than 1640, and Röthlisberger later accepted about 1627 to 1630. The Louvre follows the early dating. The picture is not among the drawings Claude began keeping around 1635 as a record of his paintings. Louis XVIII bought it in 1817 from a dealer in London.