Provenance

Baron Etienne Martin de Beurnonville

French, died 1881

Explore Selected Works

Anonymous Artist, Old Woman Plucking a Fowl, 1650/1655, oil on canvas, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Timme, 1956.1.1

Old Woman Plucking a Fowl

Anonymous Artist · 1650/1655 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.1.1

A nude man stands in a sandstone-colored, hip-high basin with hands together in prayer, as ten people stand around the basin and more look on from a distance in this vertical painting. The man, Clovis, stands with his body facing us but his head tilts slightly to his left, our right. He wears a jeweled crown over his chin-length brown hair, and looks off to our right with dark eyes under dark brows. The basin sits on an ornately carved gray stone plinth. Next to the basin to our right, a man wears a cardinal-red tunic over a long-sleeved, white garment and tips a golden bowl of liquid to pour it onto Clovis’s head. His left hand, closest to us, is held up with his palm facing Clovis. He wears a jeweled gold and silver, pointed hat that splits up the sides to expose red lining, and a richly brocaded red and gold cloak with royal-blue lining. The bronze-colored medallion hanging at his chest has an image of a man’s head and torso. The cloak seems to be embroidered with two men on the lapels, one holding a sword, the other a large key in one hand and a book in the other. Another man wearing a brocaded robe holds back the sleeve of the bishop’s raised hand, while four more men wearing robes stand in a tight cluster. An older man in this group, with graying hair, holds a curling, gold staff. Five men look onto the scene from a balcony above this group, along the right edge of the panel. A row of greenish-silver organ pipes lines the balcony behind them. Next to the basin to our left, a shorter or kneeling man with his hair shaved into a ring around his head wears a white gown and holds a large, thick book to his chest. The book is bound in light brown leather with metal clasps and fittings. Behind Clovis and to our left, a woman looks on with her hair pulled back under a gold-colored veil. Two men next to her right wear fur-trimmed cloaks of rich reds and dark green, and each touches Clovis’s arm. Beyond this group surrounding the basin, more people gather in a courtyard outside the church entrance to watch the ceremony. They wear cloaks and leggings in rose pink, emerald green, light blue, or tan. At the front of the crowd, one man holds a long-handled weapon with an axe blade and spear tip. Other stone buildings are visible around the courtyard, and a peacock perches on an archway over the crowd, in the distance.
Master of Saint Giles, The Baptism of Clovis, c. 1500, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.15

The Baptism of Clovis

Master of Saint Giles · c. 1500 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.2.15

Albrecht Dürer, The Virgin Annunciate, 1495/1499, pen and brown ink on laid paper, Woodner Collection, 1993.51.1

The Virgin Annunciate

Albrecht Dürer · 1495/1499 · pen and brown ink on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1993.51.1

We look across a river and slightly up at a pair of tall, leafy trees framed by steely-gray clouds against a a vivid blue sky in this nearly square landscape painting. A spindly trunk with only a few leafy branches grows near the towering trees, which are at the center of the picture, and a band of dark green trees grows along the river beyond them. The river runs toward us from the distance to our right into the lower left corner of the canvas, tumbling down a low waterfall near the bottom center of the painting. The river is lined with caramel-brown boulders. A woman and small child walk away from us on a footbridge spanning the river, to our left. The woman wears a white cap and apron, a dark bodice over a white shirt, and a red skirt. She carries the handle of a large basket hooked over her right forearm and the child, wearing a tan hat and jacket and brown pants, walks on her opposite side. A white dog near the woman seems to have paused to look into the forest. The horizon of the river comes about a quarter of the way up the composition so the trees, sky, and clouds fill most of the painting. The artist signed the painting as if he had written his name on a rock to the left of center: “J v Ruisdael.”
Jacob van Ruisdael, Landscape, c. 1670, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.85

Landscape

Jacob van Ruisdael · c. 1670 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.85

Created with black ink and gray washes on cream-white paper, this drawing shows a person with a pig’s face sitting astride the shoulders of a person with goat’s legs, both looking at a book held open by two people wearing robes and tall, conical hats. The creature with goat's legs sits on the floor, legs stretched in front of it. It grips the ankles of the pig-headed person, who looks at the book with with palms raised to shoulder height and facing out. The robed people hold the book open with long pincers and look at the pair of imaginary creatures with their eyes and mouths wide open. On the cloth draping over the table, three faces are drawn side-by-side, also with wide-open eyes and mouths.  A skull rests on the floor near the lower left corner. The title is written in the center of the margin of the white paper under the image, “Brujas,” and to the right, in brown ink, “à bolar.”
Francisco Goya, Brujas à volar (Witches Preparing to Fly) [verso], 1796/1797, brush and black ink and gray wash on laid paper, Woodner Collection, 1991.182.10.b

Brujas à volar (Witches Preparing to Fly) [verso]

Francisco Goya · 1796/1797 · brush and black ink and gray wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.182.10.b

Francisco Goya, Mascaras crueles (Cruel Masks) [recto], 1796/1797, brush and black ink and gray wash with scraping on laid paper, Woodner Collection, 1991.182.10.a

Mascaras crueles (Cruel Masks) [recto]

Francisco Goya · 1796/1797 · brush and black ink and gray wash with scraping on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1991.182.10.a

Anonymous Artist, Fête Champêtre, 18th or 19th century, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.14

Fête Champêtre

Anonymous Artist · 18th or 19th century · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.14

A bearded man kneels before a bishop in front of a crowd gathered outside a church in this vertical painting. The people all have pale skin. The bishop is to our left, though he stands angled to our right on the church steps. His face is lined and his eyebrows furrowed as he looks into the distance to our right. He holds up one hand with the thumb and first two fingers extended. His tall, pointed white mitre hat is widely edged with gold and jewels. A saucer-sized gold medallion fastens the two sides of his long, gold brocade robe. Under that, he wears a brick-red garment over a white shirt visible at his neck and wrists. Four clean-shaven clergymen stand behind him. The one closest to us wears white and his blond hair is cut into a ring around his head. He holds a hooked staff, a crozier, and his body blocks the others. The kneeling man, to our right, presses his hands together in prayer as he looks up at the bishop. The kneeling man wears an off-white cloth tied around his head and plum-purple, gold, and pine-green robes. A black, oval object, perhaps a cap, lies on the church step next to his knee. About fifteen men, women, and children line up beyond the kneeling man, forming a loose backward C-curve through the center of the scene. They are dressed in rose-pink, lemon or mustard-yellow, avocado-green, blue, or orange garments. At the back of the queue and seen in the near distance between the kneeling man and bishop, two men reach out to support a third man lying on the ground. The prone man looks with wild eyes and a gaping mouth at a green demon hovering overhead. The group occupies a plaza flanked by the beige stone church on the left and a large tan building with arched windows on the right. Statues and carvings fill the arched portals of the church beyond the bishop. The space is enclosed with more buildings set farther back from the two closer structures. A few wispy clouds float against the azure-blue sky overhead.   
Master of Saint Giles, Anonymous Artist, Episodes from the Life of a Bishop Saint, c. 1500, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.14

Episodes from the Life of a Bishop Saint

Master of Saint Giles, Anonymous Artist · c. 1500 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.2.14