John Hay Whitney

American, 1904 - 1982

Explore Selected Works

See all 17 works of art
Trees and mountains nearly fill this composition and are painted with long, mostly parallel brushstrokes in this horizontal landscape. The trees are painted with long dashes of royal and aquamarine blue, pine and mint green to suggest leaves on coral-red trunks. The grass below is lemon-lime yellow, and a walking path is picked out with lavender-purple strokes. The mountains beyond the trees are painted with flat areas of coral, apricot orange, and cobalt blue. The sky above is pale turquoise with a few swirling, cream-colored clouds.
André Derain, Mountains at Collioure, 1905, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.4

Mountains at Collioure

André Derain · 1905 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.4

We look across a sandy colored beach or walkway that stretches away from us to our right and then turns ninety degrees to our left in the distance, to enclose a teal-green body of water filled with rows of small rowboats in this nearly square, stylized landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with vibrant colors, in jewel-toned topaz and royal blue, emerald and mint green, pale orchid purple, golden yellow, cream white, and crimson red. The boats grouped along the beach close to us are lined up in a row along the beach to our right, punctuated by a few vertical masts. The beach across from us in the distance is lined with a cotton candy-pink, pale lavender-purple, sage-green, and pumpkin-orange warehouses in front of a line of cobalt-blue mountains along the horizon, which comes nearly to the top edge of the canvas. The sky is pastel purple, green, yellow, and peach above. The artist signed the work in dark paint in the lower right corner: “Braque.”
Georges Braque, The Port of La Ciotat, 1907, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.6

The Port of La Ciotat

Georges Braque · 1907 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.6

We look slightly down at a woman with pale skin and two men with ruddy complexions sitting at a table near a railing overlooking a boat-clogged waterway in this horizontal painting. Only the corner of the table is visible in the lower right corner of the canvas. The woman sits next to one man on the far side of the table, and the third person leans onto the table from our right, along the edge of the composition. The table is covered with a dark, ruby-red, floral cloth. The red-haired woman wears a dark green dress and leans back, extending her right arm along the railing. Her back is to the river below, and she gazes directly ahead, to our right. The dark-haired, bearded man sitting to her left, our right, leans toward the cleanshaven, dark-haired man sitting across from him. That second man wears a cap, and he has a prominent nose and square jaw. Sailboats, rowboats, a steamship, and vessels of every size occupy much of the waterway. Rows of buildings extend along the river to our left and right, and trees line the distant horizon at the center of the painting. The river is a tan color and the pale blue sky is hazy.
James McNeill Whistler, Wapping, 1860-1864, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.8

Wapping

James McNeill Whistler · 1860-1864 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.8

Raoul Dufy, The Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1906, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.3

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse

Raoul Dufy · 1906 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.3

Albert Marquet, Posters at Trouville, 1906, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.1

Posters at Trouville

Albert Marquet · 1906 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.1

We look across a wide river with buildings lining the opposite bank as two tugboats painted with stripes and strokes of cherry red, white, and cobalt blue steam along from right to left in this stylized, horizontal landscape painting. The paint is loosely and thickly applied throughout. The water is painted with layers of short, horizontal strokes and daubs of ice and royal blue, shell pink, bottle green, and the red, white, and blue of the boats to suggest reflections. One tugboat is just left of center and passes the small village on the opposite bank. Smoke rising from that boat’s stack create eddies of cobalt blue, marigold orange, and petal pink. The bow of a second tug enters from the middle right. The riverbank directly in front of us, in the lower left corner of the composition, is painted with dashes of mustard yellow layered with horizontal strokes of burnt orange. The village on the far side fills the top third of the painting and parallels the river. Its buildings are butter yellow with blue or pumpkin-orange roofs. A few tall, narrow, emerald and avocado-green strokes suggest cypress trees growing amid the village. Horizontal strokes near the river’s edge could be another line of buildings. The building’s reflections are suggested by short, parallel strokes of golden yellow, orange, and green extending into the river. The trees, buildings, and boats are outlined in black. The sky above the village is mint green layered with thick strokes of white, and swirls of azure blue and light pink. The artist signed the painting with black letters in the lower left corner, “Vlaminck.”
Maurice de Vlaminck, Tugboat on the Seine, Chatou, 1906, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.4

Tugboat on the Seine, Chatou

Maurice de Vlaminck · 1906 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.4

On the brick pavement of a sunny veranda, a young toddler leans heavily on her right arm, to our left, as she reaches for a wooden block in this horizontal painting. Much of her face is cast in deep shadow from the bright light overhead, but light brushes the tops of her cheeks and the tip of her nose. She grips a wooden block with her left hand, closer to us. Her left leg stretches to our right in a stocking striped with vivid red and white. Light glints off the shiny material of her black, round-toed slipper. She has short, golden-brown hair, and her white smock is richly embroidered in a pattern of white-one-white with alternating linked loops. Scattered before her, at arms-length, are seven other alphabet blocks lettered in gray with red and tan faces, several wooden building blocks, and a ball of red yarn. A doll in a black dress lies with limbs akimbo, face-down by a potted plant at the right edge of the canvas. A red wagon drawn by white toy horse sits near the left edge. The scene is enclosed with a deep, emerald-green hedge stretching across the background. The artist signed and dated this work as if he had inscribed two of the bricks on the patio with red paint in cursive script, in the lower right corner: “Eakins 76.”
Thomas Eakins, Baby at Play, 1876, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.5

Baby at Play

Thomas Eakins · 1876 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.5

Henri Edmond Cross, Calanque des Antibois, 1891/1892, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.2

Calanque des Antibois

Henri Edmond Cross · 1891/1892 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.2

Five monkeys rest and play amid a lush jungle landscape in this horizontal landscape painting. Painted with areas of flat color, thick vegetation fills most of the scene, with giant leaves overlapping in shades of green. At the bottom center, a large brown monkey sits upright on a rock, looking directly at us. To our left, two gray and black monkeys climb in trees, and also face us. To our right, two rust-orange monkeys swing in trees. The orange of their fur is echoed in spiky, pumpkin-orange flowers to the right. Dark red leafy plants with spiky white flowers fill the lower left corner of the painting. A cloudless, pale blue sky stretches across the top of the composition. The artist signed and dated the painting with white letters in the lower right: “Henri Rousseau 1910.”
Henri Rousseau, Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.7

Tropical Forest with Monkeys

Henri Rousseau · 1910 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.7

A light-skinned man and woman and a collie dog are outside a white house at the edge of a pale peach field of grass in this horizontal painting. Taking up a bit more than the top right quadrant of the composition, the house is white with pale blue shadows. Near the back, left corner of the house, the door has two tall, inset frosted glass panels and a shallow roof supported with scrolling, carved corbels. The door is flanked by a bay window on the left and a single window on the right. A shadowy grove of blue-green trees grows to the left of the house with one branch reaching toward the bay window. The woman faces us and stands between the bay window and door with downcast eyes and folded arms. Her blond hair is pulled or brushed back, and she wears a snug fitting, calf-length teal-blue dress. The man sits on the doorstep so his knees are angled to our left. His near arm drapes over his left knee and his far hand reaches toward the dog, his fingers and thumb touching. He has short blond hair and a ruddy face, and he wears a white t-shirt and olive-green pants. The dog stands in the middle of the field with its body angled to our right, its pointed ears and tail pricked up as it swivels its head to look to our left. It has an auburn-brown coat with white belly, chest, and tip of the tail. There are a few areas of spearmint green in the otherwise peach-colored grass, which is tall enough to brush the belly of the dog. The artist signed the lower right, “EDWARD HOPPER.”
Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Evening, 1939, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.6

Cape Cod Evening

Edward Hopper · 1939 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.6

Bibliography

1981

  • Kahn, E.J. The Life and Times of John Hay Whitney. New York, 1981

1982

  • "John Hay Whitney Dies at 77; Published Led in Many Fields." The New York Times Biographical Service 13, no. 1-3 (Jan-Mar 1982):270-272

1998

  • "Philanthropist Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney Dies." The Washington Post 27 March 1998:B6