In the foreground an artist draws classical ruins with a red porte-crayon, while an assistant holds a parasol to shield him from the low sun on the horizon. Claude was particularly interested in capturing the variable effects of light on the landscape and was one of the earliest artists to sketch outdoors, usually in pen and ink. Several of Claude's paintings of the 1630s include draughtsman of the type seen here, and it subsequently became a popular motif for landscape artists working in Italy.

Cat. 58