Hodebert

active early 20th century

Explore Selected Works

A dark-haired, disembodied head of a haloed man with pale, peach skin floats against a red and yellow background in this vertical portrait. The man’s hair seems to be flattened against his forehead, and extends beyond his head at the back in a way that suggests it may become a cap or hood. His face turns toward us, and he looks down to our left under arched eyebrows. He has a prominent hooked nose and a brushy mustache. Behind his head, the background is divided into a tomato-red zone for the top half and a golden yellow field below, separated by a thin, pine-green line. Two red and green apples hang from a branch near the upper right corner. The thin yellow halo floats over his head to the left of the branch. A pine-green, stylized, vine-like form curves up from the bottom edge of the panel and ends with flat, sunshine yellow, square shapes, perhaps abstracted flowers or fruit. A hand near the lower right holds one end of the vine like a cigarette between fingertips. The vine seems to turn into a serpent’s head beyond the man’s fingers. Numbers and letters are painted in green in the lower left: “1889” and “P Go.”
Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1889, oil on wood, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.150

Self-Portrait

Paul Gauguin · 1889 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1963.10.150

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1850 or 1859, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.9

Portrait of a Young Girl

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · 1850 or 1859 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.9

Against a hilly landscape and on a patch of dirt, five people wearing tattered clothing gather around a bearded man who holds a violin in his lap in this horizontal painting. Most of them have pale skin. Starting from the left is a barefoot young woman holding a blond baby to her chest. She faces our right, and her chestnut-brown hair hides her profile. She wears a black shirt over a calf-length skirt streaked with slate and aquamarine blue. To the right two young boys face us. The boy on the left of that pair wears a loose white shirt tucked into tan-colored pants and an upturned wide-brimmed hat. The boy next to him has short brown hair and is dressed in a black and brown vest and pants over a bone-white shirt. His right arm, to our left, is slung across the shoulders of the blond boy and he looks off to our right with dark, unfocused eyes. The man who holds the violin is to our right of center. He sits on a stone with his body facing our left, but he turns to look at us with dark eyes under heavy brows. He has tan skin, dark gray, curly hair, and a trimmed silvery gray beard. A wrinkle under one eye suggests he may smile slightly at us. He wears a loose brown cloak with a ragged bottom hem, teal-blue stockings, and black shoes. He holds a violin on his lap like a guitar. One hand fingers a chord on the neck of the violin, which comes toward us, and the other hand holds the bow and plucks a string. A sand-colored bag with a strap lies at his feet. Two men stand to our right of the musician. One wears a tall black top hat, a brown cloak, gray pants, and black shoes. His face is loosely and indistinctly painted but he has a beard. Finally, the sixth person is a man who stands along the right side of the painting and is cut off by that edge. He wears a turban, a black polka-dotted scarf, and a long black cloak or coat. One hand clutches the scarf and the other rests on a wooden cane by his side. His chin and long, light-colored beard tuck back against the scarf, and he looks off to our left with dark eyes. There are loosely painted olive and forest-green leaves in the upper left corner. The landscape beyond is painted with indistinct areas of muted green, blue, and brown. Bits of azure-blue sky peek through puffy white and gray clouds overhead. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “ed. Manet 1862.”
Edouard Manet, The Old Musician, 1862, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.162

The Old Musician

Edouard Manet · 1862 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.162

Henri Matisse, Woman with an Exotic Plant, c. 1925, pastel on wove paper coated with sawdust, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.170

Woman with an Exotic Plant

Henri Matisse · c. 1925 · pastel on wove paper coated with sawdust ·  Accession ID  1963.10.170

In shades of mint, laurel, and eucalyptus green, the head and shoulders of a chubby baby fill this vertical portrait painting. It is created with long, visible brushstrokes, some of which are thick enough to cast shadows onto the canvas beneath. The baby’s skin is painted with cool, light green, with peach-colored highlights. The baby has large, vivid blue eyes gazing intently down and off to our right, full lips, and chubby cheeks. The white garment comes to the baby’s elbows, and the pudgy fingers touch. The baby wears a gold bracelet and a gold ring with a round, red stone on the right hand, to our left. The garment and white cap on the head are outlined in sky or royal blue. Painted with vertical strokes, the background is a darker shade of laurel green.
Vincent van Gogh, Roulin's Baby, 1888, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.31

Roulin's Baby

Vincent van Gogh · 1888 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.31

About two dozen men and women sit in straight-backed, wooden chairs gathered along a sandy beach near low, gently breaking waves with sailboats floating in the ocean beyond in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted throughout, making much of the detail indistinct. Most of the people sit with their backs to us but the faces we can see suggest they all have light skin. The people gather in a loose crowd that crosses the right two-thirds of the composition. The women wear long dresses with full skirts, their shoulders wrapped in matching shawls in black, smoke gray, royal or arctic blue, rust red, or cream white. Some wear straw-colored hats with black or baby-blue bands, and others wear scarves over their hair. The men also wear hats, most of them black top hats, and suits in black or pecan brown. Some people hold up parasols in harvest gold, slate blue, teal, or gray. A few straight-backed, wooden chairs with rushed seats sit empty or are tipped over to our left of the group. Two children, one wearing marigold orange and the other topaz blue, and both wearing straw hats, kneel or squat and bend over the sand at the center of the group. Two dark brown or black dogs, one small and one large, stand to our right. Two tall, wooden poles rise high above the crowd near the right edge of the composition. A thin banner with blue, white, and red stripes flutters from the pole closer to us, and a red banner lifts in the breeze on the one farther away. Painted with thick, visible brushstrokes, low waves with white crests lap against the shore in bands of pale lilac purple, light turquoise, and aquamarine blue just beyond the crowd. Two people sit in a rowboat in the ocean to our left, and several sailboats with tan sails move into the distance to the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up the composition. Bright white strokes to our right could be sails in bright sunlight, deep in the distance. One boat amid the sailboats puffs a plume of gray smoke. Pale, almost translucent white clouds drift across the light blue sky above. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner: “E. Boudin 63.”
Eugène Boudin, Beach Scene at Trouville, 1863, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.14

Beach Scene at Trouville

Eugène Boudin · 1863 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1983.1.14