Provenance

E. Gimpel & Wildenstein

French

Explore Selected Works

Shown from the lap up, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a goldenrod-yellow dress, sits reading a small book, facing our left in profile in this vertical painting. The deep, scooped neckline of her rich yellow gown is edged with lace and decorated with a mauve-purple bow at the bust. Her chest is covered by sheer white fabric under a ruffled, pleated collar. The ruff is tied at the back with another mauve bow, and a ribbon of the same color ties up her chestnut-brown hair. She has a delicate nose and rosebud mouth, and she tips her head down to read the book she holds in one hand. She sits against an oversize pillow streaked with pale lilac and deep rose pink. Her left arm, closer to us, is draped over a railing that extends across the width of the canvas. The background behind her is streaked with tan and muted teal blue. A vertical strip of light caramel brown along the right edge of the canvas suggests another wall against which the pillow rests. The artist’s loose, lively brushstrokes are visible throughout.
Jean Honoré Fragonard, Young Girl Reading, c. 1769, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Mellon Bruce in memory of her father, Andrew W. Mellon, 1961.16.1

Young Girl Reading

Jean Honoré Fragonard · c. 1769 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.16.1

Anonymous Artist, Alexandre Brongniart, c. 1910, terracotta, Widener Collection, 1942.9.125

Alexandre Brongniart

Anonymous Artist · c. 1910 · terracotta ·  Accession ID  1942.9.125

A young woman, holding a baby in her lap, sits on a wide bench draped with a patterned midnight-blue fabric in this vertical panel painting. The panel is rectangular at the bottom and becomes a pointed arch at the top. The woman and baby both have pale skin tinged with peach, and halos inscribed on a gleaming gold background. The woman’s body is angled to our right and she tilts her head in that direction to look down at the child. She has a slender, oval face, with hazel-brown eyes under thin brows, a long nose, and coral-pink lips. A sliver of blond hair peeks out from the honey-gold cowl that covers her head, neck, and shoulders. The cowl is layered over her gold-trimmed, burgundy-red robe, which has an opening through which her right arm, closer to us, reaches to support to the child. That arm is covered by a long, gold sleeve patterned with scalloped brick-red and marine-blue designs and smoke-gray flowers. The word “MATER” is inscribed on her neckline and “AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOM TECV BEN” along the bottom hem. On the woman’s lap, the child is angled to our left with the woman’s slender hands wrapped around his torso. His mouth is slightly open as he tilts his head up to look at her. His right hand, on our left, reaches up to gesture at her neckline. He has wavy, blond hair and hazel eyes under faint brows, a small nose, and peach-colored lips set in a round face. He wears an ankle-length, cobalt-blue tunic trimmed with bright gold. The fabric on the bench is covered with cobalt-blue and crimson-red flowers, and pools around the seat and across the floor.
Gentile da Fabriano, Madonna and Child Enthroned, c. 1420, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.255

Madonna and Child Enthroned

Gentile da Fabriano · c. 1420 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.255

Two crowds made up of dozens of men each clash on the dirt floor of an outdoor arena in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted and most details are indistinct. Many of the men wear black caps and have peach or brown-colored faces. The group to our left surges near a flagpole. The group to our right eddies around a dark brown bull that stamps front feet firmly on the ground. Both groups are enlivened by swirls of buttercup yellow, scarlet red, powder blue, and bright white. One man wearing white crouches, bare bottomed, on the ground in front of the bull. More people gathered on the far side of the arena and beyond its walls pare painted with strokes and dabs of pearl white, rust red, golden brown, dark gray, ochre yellow, and black.
Eugenio Lucas Villamil, The Bullfight, c. 1890/1900, oil on canvas, Gift of Arthur Sachs, 1954.10.1

The Bullfight

Eugenio Lucas Villamil · c. 1890/1900 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1954.10.1

A pale-skinned woman wearing a filmy white gown sits sideways on a wooden chair in front of a slate-gray wall in this vertical portrait painting. With her body angled to our right, her shins are cut off by the bottom corner of the painting, and she gazes back over her other shoulder, to our left. Her head is tipped toward that shoulder, and she looks into the distance with charcoal-gray eyes below dark brows. Her cheeks are flushed and her small, peach lips are closed. Her black hair is braided in a single horizontal plait above wispy fringe that frames her face and curls down the back of her neck. The low-cut neckline of her ivory-white dress is sheer across her chest, revealing her breasts. The fabric is gathered under a thin band just under her bust, and it drapes down from there. The short sleeve we can see, on her right arm, is tied with two tassels hanging from either end of a string. Her hands rest in her lap, with her left hand, farther from us, on a silky, radish-red cloth that drapes over that knee and around her back. The rest of the cloth is piled on a narrow wooden table edged with gold at the small of her back. The chair on which she sits has a simple wooden panel as the back rest, and the seat is upholstered in fabric with shiny and matte black stripes. Tiny gold bosses line the edge of the chair near the cushion. The background behind her gradually darkens from slate gray at the top of the canvas to a dark charcoal near her legs.
Anonymous Artist, Portrait of a Young Woman in White, c. 1798, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.118

Portrait of a Young Woman in White

Anonymous Artist · c. 1798 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.118

Anonymous Artist, Louise Brongniart, c. 1910, terracotta, Widener Collection, 1942.9.126

Louise Brongniart

Anonymous Artist · c. 1910 · terracotta ·  Accession ID  1942.9.126

A young man and child, both with pale skin, are framed within the rectangular opening of a stone window in this vertical painting. At the center, the young man leans toward us over his forearms, which rest on the wide ledge. Angled to our right, he holds a long straw to his mouth to blow a large, glistening bubble that hangs on the opposite end. A second straw rests in a glass cup filled with white liquid, presumably soapy water, that sits near his right elbow, on our left, and he looks down at the bubble. His chestnut-brown hair is tied back with a black ribbon, and curls hang down from his temple. He wears a brown jacket over a white shirt. A younger child peeks over the ledge to our right and also looks at the bubble. Seen from the nose up, the child wears a hat that curves up and over the crown of the head. The face of the brown stone building into which the window is cut seems close to us. A vine of ivy climbs up the face of the building to our left.
Jean Siméon Chardin, Soap Bubbles, probably 1733/1734, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.1

Soap Bubbles

Jean Siméon Chardin · probably 1733/1734 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.5.1