Landscape with Resting Shepherds and Sheep

In the late eighteenth century, with the collaboration of the publisher John Boydell, Richard Earlom undertook a massive project to reproduce in printed form the hundreds of Claude Lorrain landscape drawings then in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. (The project, known as the Liber Veritatis, was later extended to encompass drawings by Claude in other English collections, too.) Using mezzotint, a characteristically English print medium, Earlom could imitate the tonal subtleties of wash drawings in warm tones that almost literally convey nostalgia for the "golden age" of the classical past. These printed reproductions of Claude’s oeuvre put ideal Italianate landscapes within the reach of a wider public, including those who could not afford paintings or drawings. In this example, the classical temple and the sheep resting all in a line add to the atmosphere of delicacy, grace, and serenity that English collectors found so captivating.