Holdings Information

Bibliographic Record Display

• Title:[Claude glass].
  
• Published/Created:[Great Britain?], [ca. 1860-1870?]
  
• Physical Description:1 Claude glass : dark-tinted mirror, in a hinged cloth-covered wooden case ; 24.5 x 19 x 2.5 cm
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:BRITISH ART CENTER, Rare Bks & Mss (Non-Circulating)
    Request for use in the YCBA Study Room
    
    
  • Call Number: ND1505 .C88 1860 Flat A
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    
  • Notes: Restricted fragile material. Use requires permission of the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
    
  • Provenance:Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
    

   
• Notes:The interior of the present Claude glass is lined with dark blue velvet. The wooden case is covered in black cloth. The case's metal hinge is split. There is no indication of manufacturer.
  
• Access and use:Restricted fragile material. Use requires permission of the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
• Biographical / Historical note:A Claude glass (or Claude Lorrain glass) is a small dark-tinted mirror, slightly convex in shape, usually mounted in a velvet-lined carrying case. "Its effect [is] to convey a relatively wide-angled view on to a small-scale surface ... Its tonal effect is to reduce glare at the top end of the scale ... and thus to allow the subtlety of the middle tones to emerge" (Kemp). "It has the effect of abstracting the subject reflected in it from its surroundings, reducing and simplifying the colour and tonal range of scenes and scenery to give them a painterly quality, similar in appearance to the work of Claude Lorrain, hence its name" (Harvey). The device was popular with 17th and 18th century artists, travelers, and amateurs of landscape painting.
  Arnaud Maillet (in The Claude glass, 2004) argues that the device is more aptly termed a Claude mirror, to differentiate it from the tinted translucent glass filters (of the same period) that might more rightly be called Claude glasses.
  
• Variant and related titles:[Claude mirror]
  
• Format:Visual Material
• References: Harvey, J.C. "Claude glass." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online.
  Maillet, A. Claude glass.
  Kemp, M. Science of art, p. 199
  
• Subjects:Artists' tools.
  Painting--Technique.
  Landscape painting--Technique.
  Reflection (Optics)
  
• Subjects (Local Yale):Chron.--1860-1870.
  
• Genre/Form:Claude glasses.
  Claude mirrors.