Provenance

M. Gilles Chardeau

Chardeau, Gilles Mr. and Mrs.
Private Collection, France

Explore Selected Works

A young woman with long blond hair kneels in front of a crowd of about two dozen people, mostly men, under a heavenly group on cloudbanks overhead in this vertical painting. They all have pale or tanned skin. At the bottom center, the young woman, Saint Margaret, kneels facing us as she tips her head down and to our right, her fingertips pressed together in prayer. Her cloak shimmers from pale yellow to coral red over an olive-green gown edged with sapphire blue. A thin gold halo floats over her loose, waist-length hair. A muscular, bare-chested man to our right unsheathes a sword as he twists toward Saint Margaret. An armored man to our right rests one hand on a white and gold shield, which pins dragon to the ground. Another man is on horseback in the crowd beyond, and the rest appear to stand. Some hold halberds and spears. A rocky outcropping rises to our left, and a gray building is in the distance to our right. A woman holding a baby, Mary and Jesus, and two bearded men sit in a cloud bank in the top half of the picture. One man holds an oversized key and the other a sword. They and the people below wear robes and cloaks in tones of golden yellow, royal blue, dark rose pink, or shades of gray and brown. A winged angel holding a crown of leaves and a palm frond flies between the two groups, and more blond-haired angels hover above. Two baby-like putti scatter flowers over Mary. The artist signed the work in the lower left corner as if he had written his name on a rock. It reads, “IOSEPHVS CAESAR ARPINAS.”
Giuseppe Cesari, Martyrdom of Saint Margaret, c. 1608/1611, oil on panel, Gift of David Edward Finley and Margaret Eustis Finley, 1984.4.1

Martyrdom of Saint Margaret

Giuseppe Cesari · c. 1608/1611 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1984.4.1

This horizontal landscape painting shows a cluster of tan and rust-brown buildings set on a tiny island at the center of a wide brownish-gray river. We look across the surface of the smooth, glassy river, which spans the width of the composition. Most of the buildings on the island are about the same height, perhaps three or four stories high, except for a bell tower that rises a story above the rest, to our right of center. Sage-green dabs along the ground on the island suggest vegetation. Two arched stone bridges span the river on either side of the island to connect to the city beyond. The color palette is made up entirely of shades of tan, cream white, and brown, except for the blue sky with a band of white puffy clouds above.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Island and Bridge of San Bartolomeo, Rome, 1825/1828, oil on paper on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2001.23.1

The Island and Bridge of San Bartolomeo, Rome

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · 1825/1828 · oil on paper on canvas ·  Accession ID  2001.23.1

Claude Bornet, An Elderly Lady in a Mauve Silk Dress, 1767, pastel on laid paper, Gift of Helen Porter and James T. Dyke, 2001.21.1

An Elderly Lady in a Mauve Silk Dress

Claude Bornet · 1767 · pastel on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.21.1

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, A Fashionable Noblewoman Wearing a Plumed Hat, c. 1789, pastel on blue laid paper mounted on canvas (on strainer/stretcher), New Century Fund, 1999.92.1

A Fashionable Noblewoman Wearing a Plumed Hat

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard · c. 1789 · pastel on blue laid paper mounted on canvas (on strainer/stretcher) ·  Accession ID  1999.92.1

Antoine Watteau, The Wedding Procession, c. 1712, red chalk over red chalk counterproof on laid paper, Margaret Mellon Hitchcock Fund, 2000.8.1

The Wedding Procession

Antoine Watteau · c. 1712 · red chalk over red chalk counterproof on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2000.8.1

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Well-Loved Mother, 1765, pastel with colored chalks and stumping on light golden-brown laid paper, New Century Fund, 2000.15.1

The Well-Loved Mother

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · 1765 · pastel with colored chalks and stumping on light golden-brown laid paper ·  Accession ID  2000.15.1

A sliver of land across the bottom of this composition gives way to a procession of puffy gray and white clouds sweeping up across a vivid blue, panoramic sky in this horizontal landscape painting. An area of darker gray beyond the brown land could be a valley, mountain, or shadows from the billowing clouds. About one-fifth of the way up the composition, the horizon glows the faintest peach. The clouds trundle from our left up and to our right. The view is loosely painted, especially in the land.
Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Study of Clouds over the Roman Campagna, c. 1782/1785, oil on paper on cardboard, Given in honor of Gaillard F. Ravenel II by his friends, 1997.23.1

Study of Clouds over the Roman Campagna

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes · c. 1782/1785 · oil on paper on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1997.23.1