Il sorgere del sole

Claude Lorrain made this in Rome around 1646, and though the scene looks like it belongs to some timeless golden age, the light in it is completely local. He walked the countryside around Rome, the Campagna, at dawn, memorising exactly how the early sun hangs low and hazes the horizon, then built calm, poetic landscapes back in the studio. He kept a notebook, the Liber Veritatis, recording each finished picture to guard against forgeries, and this one he noted was painted for a client over in Lyon. The lower half has darkened with age, but along the horizon you can still see the soft luminous glow he was famous for. Much later the painting belonged to Joshua Reynolds, the first president of London's Royal Academy.