Earlom working in etching, mezzotint and aquatint, and was one of the best printmakers of the later 18th century. His fame rests on his mezzotint portraits, and on his plates after Claude.
Claude Gelee (Le Lorrain) was one of the most influential and important painters of the 17th century. Even during his lifetime, fakes and imitations of his work began to appear in large numbers. To guard against falsification, Claude prepared pen drawings of all his authentic works and assembled them in the Liber Veritatis or "Book of Truth." Until a few years ago, the Liber had for two centuries been in the collection of the Dukes of Devonshire. Earlom copied these drawings as etchings and aquatints, and Boydell published them in 1777. They were republished, with variations, several times until the 1820s.
