# The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet

**Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)** (French, 1604–1682)  
ca. 1643  
Oil on canvas  
41 3/8 x 59 7/8 in. (105.1 x 152.1 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 55.119. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435908).

## About this work

Weary of years of wandering, the Trojan women travelling with Aeneas gather on the shore of Sicily and set fire to their own ships, urged on by the goddess Iris in disguise, so that they need sail no further. Claude, the great painter of ideal landscape, sets the episode from Virgil’s Aeneid in a broad harbour, where the drama unfolds on a small scale among the figures and ships. As so often in his work, much of the poetry lies in the luminous sea and sky.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) painted this in about 1643, aged 39. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/claude-lorrain-claude-gellee)

French, 1604–1682; born in Chamagne; died in Rome

Claude Gellée, called Lorrain after his native duchy, went to Rome as a youth and spent almost his whole life there. He became the most admired landscape painter of his century, creating idealised visions of the Roman Campagna and classical harbours bathed in the golden light of morning or evening, peopled with small biblical and mythological figures. He recorded his compositions in drawings bound into a volume, the Liber Veritatis, as a guard against forgers.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was 39
- Real size: about 41 × 60 in (105 × 152 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 17th century
- Subjects: Women, Ships, Aeneid
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1076.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1076/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-trojan-women-setting-fire-to-their-fleet-met-435908).