Original etching printed in black ink on wove paper. Signed and dated in the plate "Claud Gille 1634", lower right. An impression of the fifth and final state.

Dimensions: 4 3/8" x 7 1/16"
Catalogue reference: Mannocci 12 v/v; Robert-Dumesnil 3; Duplessis 3; Blum 8; Knab 119; Russell 18

Claude Lorrain, born Claude Gellée, was born in the French duchy of Lorraine in 1600, and was apprenticed to a Mannerist landscape painter in Rome thirteen years later. Italy became Lorrain's permanent home, and he concentrated on landscapes in his work until his death in 1682.

The broken horizontal lines in the sky, as well as the crosshatching in the foreground, are used to suggest the darkness of night and motion in the bodies of the animals and people.