BATH.- The Holburne recently opened two new galleries, displaying works on long-term loan from the Schroder family collection. While the lower ground floor sparkles with Renaissance silver, a small but exquisite collection of paintings form the 17th-Century Gallery on the first floor.

An undoubted highlight, Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing Music by a River was painted around 1637 by the renowned master of the ideal landscape, Claude Gellée – better known as Claude Lorrain, or simply Claude (1604/5–1682).

Claude is widely credited with pioneering landscape painting, emphasising harmony, light and classical serenity. His work had a profound influence on the development of landscape art, particularly in Britain; J.M.W. Turner even bequeathed two of his masterpieces to the National Gallery on the condition they hung beside Claude’s paintings.

Largely self-taught, Claude developed his style through close observation of nature and light, sketching outdoors from dawn to dusk to capture atmospheric effects with remarkable sensitivity. The countryside around Rome was scattered with ancient ruins, which he often incorporated in his poetic and idealised landscapes.

Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing Music by a River is recorded in Claude’s Liber Veritatis—a book of ink-and-wash drawings where he meticulously reproduced each of his paintings, often noting the buyer and destination, which is housed at the British Museum. The annotations on the page reveal that this picture was painted for Etienne Gueffier (1576-1660), French envoy in Rome, c1637-8.

The painting was last publicly exhibited exactly 100 years ago, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Dr Chris Stephens, Director of the Holburne said: “This painting represents the most important individual loan in the museum’s history. There are few – if any – works of this quality outside London. It is thrilling for the Holburne and for Bath to house a display of such international standing.”

The painting by Claude is displayed in the Holburne’s new 17th-Century Gallery, presenting highlights from a larger collection of 17th-century art assembled by Baron Bruno Schroder (1867–1940) and his wife between 1913 and 1928. Other works on display include portraits by Justus Sustermans (1597–1681) and Cornelis van der Voort (1576–1624); landscapes by Aert van der Neer (1603/4–1677) and Jan van Goyen (1596–1656); and an exquisitely decorated scagliola table attributed to Fistulator workshop, from the mid-17th century.