Liber Veritatis. Or a Collection of Two Hundred Prints, after the original designs of Claude le Lorrain (...)

About this artwork

height 208 mm x width 258 mm

Art Historical Context

This 1776 etching by Richard Earlom forms part of his celebrated publication *Liber Veritatis a series of two hundred faithfully reproducing the drawings of the seventeenth-century French landscape master Claude Lorrain. Earlom, a leading British printmaker, translated Claude’s delicate ink-and-wash studies into etched lines that captured the luminous and balanced compositions for which the original artist was renowned. Measuring just 208 by 258 millimetres, each sheet was designed to be intimate yet precise, allowing viewers to study Claude’s compositional ideas at close range. Claude himself had assembled the *Liber Veritatis* as a personal record of his paintings, partly to guard against forgeries. By the late eighteenth century, interest in his idyllic landscapes had surged among British collectors and artists. Earlom’s project brought these private drawings to a wider public, spreading Claude’s influence across Europe and shaping the taste for idealised nature that would later inspire Romantic landscapists. As an etching, the medium allowed Earlom to render both the fine architectural details and the soft, atmospheric skies that define Claude’s vision. Today the volume stands as a landmark in the history of reproductive printmaking, bridging the gap between an Old Master’s hand and the expanding audience of the Enlightenment era.

About the Artist

Richard Earlom · 1728–1794

Richard Earlom (1743–1822) stands as one of the supreme masters of mezzotint engraving in British art history, whose technical virtuosity and dedication to reproductive printmaking brought the works of Old Masters to unprecedented audiences. Born in London on May 14, 1743, Earlom spent his entire career transforming paintings and drawings into prints of extraordinary quality, elevating reproductiv...