George Loring Brown

During his second trip to Europe, Brown worked in Italy from 1839-59 and lived in Florence with his wife from 1841-46. He later studied under American expatriate painter Washington Allston and painstakingly produced a series of nine etchings in the meticulous manner of an engraver, entitled Etchings of the Campagna, Rome (published in 1860 in Francine Tyler's American Etchings of the 19th Century XVI).

A contemporary of Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole, Brown worked in the tradition of 17th-century French landscapist Claude Lorrain and created idyllic Italian scenes. His landscapes so closely resemble Lorrain's paintings, that he earned the nickname "Claude" from his colleagues and critics.