Provenance

The Matthiesen Gallery

Matthiesen Fine Art Limited
Matthiesen Gallery
Private Collection c/o The Matthiesen Gallery

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About three dozen people gather in a grassy field to either side of a crumbling structure to kneel and pray before a woman and baby in the center of this horizontal painting. The woman, Mary, and baby, Jesus, have smooth, pale skin while the others have light or tanned skin. The structure has sand-colored stone pillars, a wooden triangular, pitched roof, and a straw floor. Mary, who has an elongated torso, sits facing us with her knees apart. She wears an azure-blue robe over a rose-pink dress. A shell-pink veil covers her head and body. Jesus sits on her left knee, his pudgy body angled to our left. He is nude except for a transparent cloth wrapped over one shoulder and the opposite hip. Mary’s left hand braces his torso. On Mary’s right, our left, Joseph, an older man, stands facing us. He clasps his hands at his chest and leans on a long stick. He has wrinkled skin, long, gray curly hair, and a full beard. Both Mary and Joseph tilt their heads to their right, our left, as they look down at Jesus. Joseph wears a golden yellow robe over a blue tunic. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus have faint gold halos. Behind them, a brown cow and gray donkey rest on the straw. People closest to Mary and Jesus kneel and bow their heads while the people to the left and right sides mostly stand. Three men kneeling closest to Mary and Jesus offer gifts, including a bronze vessel and a gold jar. One man has long dark brown hair and a beard, and wears a gold crown. Another man is bald with long gray hair and beard, while the third is cleanshaven with shoulder-length brown hair. These men wear robes in powder blue, carnation pink, or celery green with delicate silver and gold embelishments. Others in the crowd range in age from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. They wear robes and tunics in shades of raspberry pink, butterscotch yellow, lapis blue, plum purple, or forest green. Several horses, their coats white or cinnamon brown, stand among the crowd, a few with riders. To our right, one horse rears its head and two others stand facing each other. Beyond the crowd, grassy green meadows and hills dotted with trees lead back to the horizon. A pale blue sky fills the top third of the composition.
Sandro Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1478/1482, tempera and oil on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.22

The Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli · c. 1478/1482 · tempera and oil on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.22

A young girl stands next to and holds the hand of an elegantly dressed woman sitting in a wooden armchair near stone columns, in front of a crimson-red curtain pulled up to reveal a distant landscape view in this vertical portrait painting. The child and woman have smooth, light skin, and the fabric of their dresses has a silken sheen. To our right, the woman sits with her knees angled slightly to our left, and she looks at us with dark blue eyes under faint brows. Her brown hair is pulled back from her high forehead under a hair covering set with pearls. Her pointed chin is slightly pulled back, and her pale pink lips are closed. A teardrop-shaped pearl hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears two strands of pearls like a choker, above a thick, pleated lace ruff. The fabric of the long-sleeved bodice has a gold-on-gold pattern, and is lined with a row of buttons down the front. Filmy lace cuffs extend back over her forearms from her wrists. Her full, floor-length skirt is scarlet red with a gold, brocade-like pattern, and has silvery-gray stripes down the front and around the lower hem. The cloak she wears over the dress has a black-on-black floral pattern. Three thick gold chains hang across her bodice, and she wears a square-cut, gray stone set in a gold ring on the third finger of her left hand. To our left, the young girl stands next to the wooden arm of the chair and holds the woman’s hands with both of hers. The child looks at us with gray eyes, and her pale pink lips are parted in a slight smile. Her light brown hair is pulled back under a gray band, perhaps of fur, around her head, over an apricot-colored head covering that matches her dress. The tight-fitting, long-sleeved bodice is striped with bands of alternating gold and pink geometric designs against the apricot-peach background. A lace-edged collar lies across her shoulders. A red, oval pendant hangs from her three-standed pearl necklace, and she wears three pearl bracelets on one wrist. A thick gold chain falls across her chest and around one hip. The floor-length, full skirt has buttercup-yellow and shell-pink highlights on the coral-colored background. Behind the pair, the red curtain has been pulled up so it seems to flutter behind the woman’s head, in front of stone columns that frame a distant landscape view with trees. A blocky structure, presumably a building, sits on the far distant, hazy horizon. Light pours down in streaks from steel-gray clouds against a pale blue sky.
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Susanna Fourment and Her Daughter, 1621, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.48

Susanna Fourment and Her Daughter

Sir Anthony van Dyck · 1621 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.48

Two large dogs approach a man lying unconscious and mostly buried in the snow in this horizontal painting. The head of the man comes toward us, at the lower center of the composition, and the dogs are close to us. In the center of the painting, a large tan and white dog has short, glossy fur and floppy ears, and its jowly mouth hangs open with the pink tongue visible. It paws at the snow partially covering most of the body of the man, who wears an olive-green coat with a fur collar and white shirt. The dog looks up to our right, and its body and white-tipped tail recede diagonally into the picture to the left. There is a red blanket with black edging over the dog’s back, and the hound wears a wide, fur-lined silver collar ornamented with metalwork lions and bells. The second dog, a dark brown brindle color, sits to the immediate left of the first dog. It gazes down at the prone person and bends its head down to lick a bare pale, pink hand that protrudes from under the snow. The brindle dog wears a small barrel around its neck on a brown buckled leather collar. The man’s dark brown hair falls over the snow. His pale gray face is upward, and his shoulders are visible while his arms splay out, and the rest of his body, extending into the picture, is covered with snow. The man’s eyes are closed. His right hand, in a tan leather glove, reaches toward us from the snow, while a green velvet cap with a red ribbon lies under the hand. The scene is enclosed by large, angular, steel and blue-gray boulders and rock formations, with two craggy pine trees above. Beyond lies a mountain landscape with a V-shaped pass at the center top framed by the steep ascent of jagged, snowy hillsides and a sliver of blue sky. A blocky stone building is nestled in among the crags to our right. On a path leading from the building, three bearded men wearing black caps and robes hurry toward the dogs. The nearest of them holds up a staff with a cross on the top and waves or signals to the men farther back along the path.
Sir Edwin Landseer, Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler, 1820, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2019.120.1

Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler

Sir Edwin Landseer · 1820 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2019.120.1

Close to us, six light-skinned men crowd into two small wooden boats that together span the width of this horizontal painting. The bow of the boat to our left overlaps the stern of the boat to our right. In the stern of the boat to our left, along the left edge of the canvas, a man, Jesus sits in profile facing our right. A marine-blue garment drapes around his waist and legs over a rose-pink tunic, and three rays of gold light emanate from the top, front, and back of his head. He raises his left hand toward the other two men in his boat. A bearded, balding man wearing marigold orange kneels with his hands pressed together in prayer in front of Jesus. To our right, at the bow of the boat and near the center of the composition, a younger bearded man with flowing hair steps toward Jesus, his arms outstretched. His pink tunic and emerald-green cape billow around him. Two muscular, bare-chested men bend over the side of the boat to our right, pulling in a fishing net. A balding man with a white beard sits in the bow of that boat, his body facing our left. He looks over his left shoulder toward the water and the half-submerged oar he holds. Blue water stretches into the distance between a distant mountain to our left and the meandering shoreline to our right. The horizon where the blue sky meets the water is close to the top edge of the composition.
Jacopo Bassano, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 1545, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1997.21.1

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes

Jacopo Bassano · 1545 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1997.21.1

Shown from the hips up, a boy with pale, peachy skin and copper-brown hair stands in front of a rocky outcropping with a narrow view into a distant landscape to our left in this vertical portrait painting. His body faces our left almost in profile, and he turns his face to look at us with dark brown eyes under faint brows. He has a long, straight nose, a pointed chin, flushed cheeks, and his full, rose-pink lips are slightly parted. His dark hair falls in waves to the wide, flat, white collar at his neck. He wears a golden yellow doublet brocaded with shimmering threads, possibly silver and gold. The sleeves split along the inner arm to reveal a white shirt with voluminous, puffy sleeves that end with wide, transparent cuffs like floppy saucers around each wrist. Over the jacket, he wears a gleaming, pewter-colored breastplate with a topaz-blue sash crossing his chest. His peanut-brown pants are also sewn or woven with metallic thread in stripes down the side of the leg. The boy rests his right hand, farther from us, on a staff or walking stick propped in front of him. His other hand rests around the gold hilt of a rapier, a thin sword at his left hip, closer to us. Behind the boy, the view is almost entirely taken up with a slate-gray boulder, or it could be the entrance of a cave. A view onto the landscape along the left edge of the composition has a few treetops beneath pale yellow clouds against an ice-blue sky.
Adriaen Hanneman, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, c. 1653, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.51

Henry, Duke of Gloucester

Adriaen Hanneman · c. 1653 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.51

Shown from about the lap up, a young person with brown hair and a peachy complexion faces our left in profile as he leans onto a table and sets folded playing cards up in a row in this vertical painting. Shown against a dark background, his long, brown hair curls by his ears and is pulled back with a navy-blue ribbon at the nape of his neck. He has a delicately sloping nose, his pink lips are closed, the cheek facing us is flushed, and he looks down at the tabletop under lowered lids. He wears a chestnut-brown, long-sleeved coat with a dark blue sash across his chest and tied around his waist. The white of his undershirt peeks out at the high neck and wrists, and the brick-red lining of the sleeve of his jacket rolls back at his right wrist. The wooden table is lined with teal-blue fabric on its surface, and three coins lie near his left hand, closer to us. In that hand he holds three nested, vertically folded playing cards. With his right hand he places the last in a line of ten cards, standing vertically but close together like dominoes, in a curving row in front of him. Scarlet-red diamonds and hearts and the edges of some black shapes are visible within the bent cards. A jack of hearts and a piece of paper or the back of another card sit in a drawer that opens toward us along the side of the table. The artist signed the work in dark brown paint in the lower right corner: “J. Chardin.”
Jean Siméon Chardin, The House of Cards, probably 1737, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.90

The House of Cards

Jean Siméon Chardin · probably 1737 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.90

This painting shows ancient ruins made of reddish-brown stone. In front of these dilapidated walls are lines of tan and gray columns and free-standing arches. The brown ground is littered with cream-colored stones. In the background, there are rolling gray hills and distant mountains under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
Achille-Etna Michallon, The Forum at Pompeii, 1819, oil on paper, Gift of the Matthiesen Gallery and John Lishawa Ltd. in memory of E. A. Carmean Jr. (1945–2019) and Philip Conisbee (1946–2008), both curators at the National Gallery of Art, 2020.15.1

The Forum at Pompeii

Achille-Etna Michallon · 1819 · oil on paper ·  Accession ID  2020.15.1

Shown from the chest up, a young man with a plump, pale-skinned face hooks one elbow over the back of a wooden chair and looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body faces our right as he turns his head over his right shoulder, closer to us, to gaze out with brown eyes under lifted brows. His nose ends with a round bump, and his round cheeks are flushed. He has a wispy mustache over full pink lips, which are parted. He wears a tall-crowned, brimmed black hat over a cloud of wavy, shoulder-length black hair. A lace-edged white collar spreads over an ink-black, satin coat. His right elbow is planted across the back of the chair, which has carved finials to either side. That hand is closed in a fist, which may hold something. The man’s hat casts a shadow on the right side of the taupe-gray wall behind him, where the artist has signed the painting with two monograms of his initials, “HF.” The brushwork is loose throughout, especially so in the man’s clothing.
Frans Hals, Portrait of a Young Man, 1646/1648, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.71

Portrait of a Young Man

Frans Hals · 1646/1648 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.71

A partially nude woman with pale, peachy skin sits to our left looking into a mirror held up by a nearly nude, winged child to our right in this vertical painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left but she looks across her body to our right. She holds her left hand to her chest, and her right hand grips the fur-lined edge of the scarlet-red, velvet fabric that drapes over that upper arm and around her hips. Her blond hair is coiled up in rows of pearls, and she has dark eyes, a straight nose, and her pale pink lips turn up in a subtle smile. A teardrop pearl earring hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears rings and gold bracelets. The child-like figure to the right stands on a gold-striped cushion facing away from us as he holds up the rectangular, black-framed mirror. He has small silver wings and a sash of golden yellow hangs from one shoulder around the opposite hip. A second child reaches from behind the mirror to hold up a ring of laurel leaves. A forest-green curtain is gathered in the upper left corner and the beige wall beyond falls into shadow to our right.
Titian, Venus with a Mirror, c. 1555, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.34

Venus with a Mirror

Titian · c. 1555 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.34

Shown from about the waist up, a light-skinned man with sagging jowls and a double chin wears a fur garment and hat, a large teardrop pearl earring, and gold chains in this vertical painting. In front of a cracked gray stone wall, the man's body is angled to our right but he turns his face to look at us with brown eyes under a furrowed brow. He has a bulbous nose, and his lips are slightly parted under a wide, wispy mustache. His brown hair is mostly hidden under the tall dark brown fur hat, which is wrapped with a gold chain with a gold medallion at the front. The chestnut-brown fur coat looks especially fuzzy along the neckline, which is also encircled with a thick gold chain. A gold, crown-shaped pendant with a black brush hangs over his right shoulder, closer to us. He holds a gold-tipped cane with his right hand, his thumb extended along the cane. The artist signed and dated the work in the upper right corner, "Rembrandt f: 1637."
Rembrandt van Rijn, A Polish Nobleman, 1637, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.78

A Polish Nobleman

Rembrandt van Rijn · 1637 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.78

Bibliography

2006

  • Cannadine, David. Mellon: an American life. New York, 2006: 418-421, 446.

2011

  • Singer, Nina. " Galerie Matthiesen," in Gute Geschäfte. Kunsthandel in Berlin 1933-1945. Exh. Cat., Aktives Museum, Berlin, 2011: 73-80.

  • Fiedler, Susanne and Torsten Knuth. "Vexierbilder einer Biographie: Dr. Heinz Mansfeld (1899-1959)." Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher 126 (2011): 298-299.