[Cloud with lightning]. Book illustration from Library of Congress

Inscription, verso in brown ink at top: "Questo Baleno [something crossed out] apparve a' 12 d'Agosto 1624 a' hor' 1 e [some sign] e' duro vicino due hori, non aspet/ tando mai un baleno l'altro, non ci manco personi le quali dissero che quella stessa sera erano/ apparsi duoi combattenti in aria a'quali s'affrontavano con la lancia molti dissero che/ significava qualsi [questa??] futura essendovi in quel tempo qualchi romori nella Sicilia, altri/ dissero che era segno di guerra arrivano per l'Italia." (Translation: This lightning was seen August 24, 1624 at 1:30 [am] and lasted for about two hours. As a lightening was in no way looked for, some people said that in that very night two men fighting in the air had appeared who attacked each other with lances; many said that they signified uproars in Sicily to come to pass in the near future. Others said that it was a sign of a war threatening Italy.)
Inscription, verso: "m" in brown ink at center right edge. Lower left upside down in black chalk: "890."
Has Hubbard Collection blind stamp and ink stamp (see Lugt 1267b).
Inscribed in pencil on mat: "18.3 R 25 1B 80-109."
Title, attribution, date, subject, and physical description by Diane de Grazia, 2011.
Gardiner Greene Hubbard Collection.
Catalog of the Gardiner Greene Hubbard Collection of Engravings. Compiled by Arthur J. Parsons. Washington: Library of Congress, 1905, p. 371.
Marcel G. Roethlisberger, "Some Early Clouds," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 111, May-June, 1988, pp. 284-292, as very possibly Claude Lorrain.
Gift; Gertrude Hubbard; 1898; (DLC/PP-1898:R01).
Claude Lorrain was the most important and influential landscape artist in Italy in the seventeenth century. Born in Lorrain in 1600, he arrived in Italy about 1612/13 and lived in Rome most of his life. His paintings and drawings were admired and collected during his lifetime and are found in the major museums throughout the world. In the article by Roethlisberger, whose monograph on the artist (1979) is still the best account of his work, the author compares this drawing with secure cloud studies by the artist and suggests that this sheet may also be by him, although it is difficult to securely attribute it stylistically to him.
Condition assessment: Some iron gall ink has bled through to verso, 2014.
Conserved, 08-82-017.1.