_Claude_ (French: 1600-1682). _See_ 2.
The history of this picture is curiously interesting. It belonged to
Sir George Beaumont, who valued it so highly that it was, we are told,
his travelling companion. He presented it to the National Gallery in
1826, but unable to bear its loss begged it back for the rest of his
life. He took it with him into the country, and on his death, two years
later, his widow restored it to the nation. Sir George Beaumont was not
the only artist who thought highly of this little picture. Constable,
we are told, "looked back on the first sight of this exquisite work as
an important epoch in his life.... It is called _The Annunciation_; but
the spring by which the female is seated, and the action of the angel
who points to the buildings in the distance, leave little doubt that
Claude's intention was to represent the first flight of Hagar from the
presence of her mistress" (Leslie's _Life of Constable_, 1845, p. 6).