Percy Moore Turner

British, 1877 - 1950

Explore Selected Works

Four yellow apples, a lime, and a ceramic pitcher are loosely arranged across a tabletop covered with a carnation-pink cloth patterned with white flowers in this almost square, stylized still life painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in saturated colors throughout. We look slightly down onto the front corner of the table, where the canary-yellow apples sit in the folds of the tablecloth. The apple closest to us at the corner of the table has a scarlet-red patch on the side facing us. Between the two rightmost apples, the lime is painted in shamrock and fern green. The cloth is bunched up just behind the apples to partially obscure the pitcher sitting near the back of the table. The pitcher is painted with swipes and patches of white, aquamarine blue, and silver gray with gold highlights along its spout. Daubs of pine green, rose pink, and flame red suggest a floral decoration on its side. The wall beyond the table fills the height of the composition, and is scattered with white flowers layered over an aquamarine-blue background. The blossoms seem oversized, each the size of a blown-up balloon. Other leafy forms painted with sapphire blue and plum purple could be more flowers or leaves. Two vertical stripes to the left and right behind the table are made up of strokes and daubs of caramel brown over honey yellow. The artist signed the lower right, “Henri-Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Still Life with Apples on a Pink Tablecloth, 1924, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.169

Still Life with Apples on a Pink Tablecloth

Henri Matisse · 1924 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.169

Against a landscape, a pale-skinned man walking hunched over as he carries a large bundle like pillows wrapped in a blanket on his back nearly fills this vertical painting. Close to us, the man walks to our right with his head down and his eyes closed or downcast under straight, furrowed brows. He has a wide, prominent nose, a brown beard, and close-cropped hair. With muscled forearms arms raised overhead, he clutches the forest-green cloth tied around the bundle, which has cloth with dark green stripes against cream white. The man wears a red, waist-length tunic over an ankle-length, bright white garment, which splits up the side to show his muscular legs and bare feet. He strides across a moss-green rock. On the far side of the rock on which he stands, to our left, a sand-brown path curves away from us to the wide, arched opening of a building. The structure has gray walls, possibly stone, with goldenrod-yellow paneling around the second story, and a red roof. At the arched opening, a couple dozen people, tiny in scale, gather around a person who stands and gestures with arm extended over a second person lying on a cloth. The four corners of the cloth are suspended by four ropes, barely visible, where the cloth had been lowered to the ground from above, presumably from the four people on the roof. The people in the crowd wear robes in mustard yellow, navy blue, plum purple, dark red, and white. Another building and a stone tower rise beyond the structure. To our right, the land dips down to the horizon line, which comes about a quarter of the way up the painting. People walk along the distant path that passes in front of a house at the foot of a steel-blue, rocky outcropping. A leafy tree grows where the road bends out of sight, and bands of white clouds stretch across the pale, muted turquoise sky.
Netherlandish 16th Century, The Healing of the Paralytic, c. 1560/1590, oil on panel, Chester Dale Collection, 1943.7.7

The Healing of the Paralytic

Netherlandish 16th Century · c. 1560/1590 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1943.7.7

Georges Seurat, The Seine with Clothing on the Bank (Study for "Bathers at Asnières"), 1883/1884, oil on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.56

The Seine with Clothing on the Bank (Study for "Bathers at Asnières")

Georges Seurat · 1883/1884 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2014.18.56

This horizontal landscape is painted with dots and dashes in fresh green, shimmering blue, amethyst purple, shell pink, pale yellow, and cream white against the brown wood of the panel, which is visible throughout. Though loosely painted, a scene with a grassy area hemmed to our left and along the back with a body of water comes into focus. A person sits near the bank to our left. Daubs in violet could be more people walking in the near distance among trees. An arc of white suggests a sailboat near the shoreline off to our left. The artist signed the painting in red in the lower left, “Seurat.”
Georges Seurat, Study for "La Grande Jatte", 1884/1885, oil on wood, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.81

Study for "La Grande Jatte"

Georges Seurat · 1884/1885 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1970.17.81

A pearlescent, gold-shaded, white dappled horse stands in front of a dark background in this horizontal painting. The horse faces our left in profile and lifts its head. Its four feet are evenly spaced, and the back of his hindquarters and his tail are largely swallowed in shadow. Light glistens off the horse’s muscles along its body and neck. Traces of a signature in light paint are illegible in the lower left corner.
Anonymous Artist, Gray Stallion, c. 1850 or later, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1984.29.2

Gray Stallion

Anonymous Artist · c. 1850 or later · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1984.29.2

Bibliography

1927

  • Turner, Percy Moore. "Gainsborough Discoveries at Ipswich." The Burlington Magazine 51 (November 1927): 239-240.

  • Loan Collection of Oil Paintings, Water-Colour Drawings, Etc., illustrative of the work of artists of the Norwich School of Painting. Norwich, England, 6 October-5 November 1927.

1933

  • "P. M. Turner wins Légion d'Honneur." Art News 31 (8 April 1933): 4.

1937

  • "The Constable Centenary: A Synoptic Exhibition." Apollo 25 (May 1937): 293-297.

  • A Centenary Memorial Exhibition of John Constable, R.A. London, Wildenstein Galleries, 21 April-29 May 1937.

1989

  • Les donateurs du Louvre, Paris, 1989, p. 334

1994

  • House, John. Impressionism for England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and Collector exh. cat., Courtauld Institute Galleries, 1994:22-23