James-Alexandre, comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier

1776 - 1855

Explore Selected Works

A group of four people gather around a person in a bed, seen through an open doorway to our left, while a man and woman stand near a second doorway of a beige building in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale skin. Seen through the arched opening in the room to our left, two people with flat, plate-like gold halos offer a vessel to the person sitting up in bed. The people with the halos wear raspberry-pink and white cloaks over aquamarine-blue robes. They each also wear a cap with a red, mushroom-like top over a white band that encircles the head. The person sitting up in bed wears a white robe, and her lap is covered with a red blanket. Two more people peer over the headboard behind her. A three-legged stool and a tray with a ewer sits near the bed. In the arched opening to our right, a woman wears a lilac-purple dress with a white head covering that drapes over her shoulders. She holds out a straw-colored box, perhaps a basket, to a man with a gold halo, who also wears pink and white cloaks over a blue tunic and the red cap. He holds one hand up in front of his chest and reaches for the box with the other. The door to our right is set back and the ground in front of it is covered with paving stones. Atop the wall over the right-hand door sits a wide, rounded pot with dark green plants, in front of a sliver of topaz-blue sky. There are cracks across the surface of the panel, especially visible in the building’s flat façade.
Fra Angelico, The Healing of Palladia by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, c. 1438/1440, tempera and oil on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.3

The Healing of Palladia by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian

Fra Angelico · c. 1438/1440 · tempera and oil on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.3

A smiling young woman and an elderly man with exaggerated features embrace and gaze into each other’s eyes while a person dressed in the orange costume of a fool lurks behind them to our left in this horizontal painting. All three have pale skin and are shown from the chest up behind a ledge or tabletop against a black background. The older man to our right wears a dark teal-blue garment and a bright crimson-red head covering that drapes over both shoulders. Wrinkles and age spots cover his face, which is accentuated by a bulbous nose and a leering smile that exposes missing teeth. His arms reach out and encircle the woman to our left. Cradling the right side of her head with his right hand, his left arm reaches across to her upper body, his thumb visible at her breast. A blue and gold band holds the woman’s auburn-brown hair back. A white shift peeks through the slashed sleeves of her emerald-green, gold-trimmed gown. She reaches toward the elderly man with her right arm, her hand holding his chin. Her left arm reaches across her body under his arm and she holds a leather pouch in that hand. A man wearing an orange cap with asses’ ears reaches for the pouch, eyes crossed and his tongue protruding from the side of his mouth. Playing cards and coins lie on the ledge to our left.
Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, c. 1520/1525, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1971.55.1

Ill-Matched Lovers

Quentin Massys · c. 1520/1525 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1971.55.1

This vertical portrait shows the head, shoulders, and chest of a young man with smooth, pale skin and shoulder-length, dark blond hair positioned behind a narrow gray, stone ledge. Shown against a black background, the man tilts his head to our left and his eyes cut to our right. His left eyebrow, on our right, is slightly arched over brown eyes. He has a long, straight nose, pale pink lips, and his hair falls down the sides of his face from beneath a crimson-red, flat-topped cap. He wears a brown garment with white linen peeking through at the shoulder seams. The neck and seam down the front are lined with white, perhaps fur. He holds his right hand to his chest with his middle finger overlapping his ring finger.
Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Youth, c. 1482/1485, tempera on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.19

Portrait of a Youth

Sandro Botticelli · c. 1482/1485 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.19

Shown from the hips up, a nude woman stands between a table in front of her and a clothed man behind her, against a deep landscape in this vertical painting. The man rests one hand on her shoulder and holds up a mirror with the other. The woman’s pale skin has a pronounced golden glow. Her body faces us and she looks to our left, holding her waist-length, curly, strawberry-blond hair with her right hand by her face. Her hair on the other side is tied back with a sage-green band behind her ear. She wears a sheer white sash wrapped around her back and upper arms. A muted rose-pink, velvet sash loops over her left forearm, to our left. That hand rests on a round, squat glass bottle that sits on a leaf-green table, with her index finger covering the opening of the bottle. She wears a gold ring with a small dark stone on her left ring finger, and another gold ring rests on the table. The back corner of the table covers her genitals in the lower right corner of the painting. Behind her and to our left, a man with an olive-toned complexion and short curly brown hair, moustache, and long beard looks down his long nose at the woman as he rests his left hand, to our right, on her shoulder. He has dark eyebrows, flushed cheeks, and his pink lips are closed. He wears a cranberry-red coat embroidered along the edges with gold. White ruffles encircle his neck and the cuff we can see. Almost lost in shadow, the hilt of his sword peeks around his hip. With his right hand, to our left, he holds up a dark rectangular object in a wood-colored frame. The reflections of his fingertips in the glass indicate that this is a mirror, but the surface is otherwise black. A dense, forest-green tree grows in the landscape behind the woman. The view over the man’s shoulder, to our left, has sea-green hills beneath a watery blue sky with cream-white clouds.
Italian 15th/16th Century, Allegory of Love, c. 1520/1540, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.259

Allegory of Love

Italian 15th/16th Century · c. 1520/1540 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.259

Shown from about the knees up, an older, bearded, pale-skinned man sits at a desk with his head in one hand in a shadowy room in this vertical painting. His body is angled to our right, and he sits in a heavy wooden armchair next to a desk. His left elbow, farther from us, rests on the chair’s arm, and he holds that hand to his forehead. He holds a quill with his other hand, which brushes his knee. He has ash-brown hair covered at the back by a cap and a long shaggy beard. He looks off to our right with dark, shaded eyes. His voluminous brown robe is brushed loosely with golden brown highlights. The rust-red garment under the robe is visible at the sleeves, neckline, and one knee. The desk, to our right, has a stack of papers or parchment. The oversized hilt of a long sword leans against the wall behind the desk. The background is painted with areas of earth and chestnut brown. Some areas of the scene are loosely painted so brushstrokes are visible, especially the brightest white highlights on his collar, the quill, the edges of the parchment, and glints on the sword. The artist signed the painting on the face of the desktop, near the lower right corner: “Rembrandt f.”
Rembrandt van Rijn, Anonymous Artist, The Apostle Paul, c. 1657, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.59

The Apostle Paul

Rembrandt van Rijn, Anonymous Artist · c. 1657 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.59

Bibliography

1854

  • Michaud. Biographie Universelle. vol. 34: 231.

1976

  • Boime, Albert. "Entrepreneurial Patronage in Nineteenth Century France" in Enterprise and Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France. Ed. by Edward C. Carter II et al. Baltimore, 1976: 148+.

1996

  • Turner, Jane, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 25:383-384.