Provenance

Georges Seligmann, Inc.

Explore Selected Works

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Dr. Louis Martinet, 1826, graphite on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.50

Dr. Louis Martinet

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres · 1826 · graphite on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1995.47.50

We look down at a wooden tabletop with two playing cards among stacked rectangles and wedges in this vertical, abstract painting. The two playing cards we can make out are a four of diamonds to our left and an ace of clubs to our right. The ace shifts from the traditional black club on a white background to a moss-green club on a black background on the top half. The other rectangles could be upside-down cards, though they are larger in scale than the face-up playing cards. These shapes are made with pea-green dots on a black background, areas of textured silvery olive green, and sky blue. The cards lie on a mostly complete corner of a table painted with wood grain, but triangles of wood grain, green polka dots, and blue intersect and bisect each other. A wide fern-green form with rounded lobes hanging from it fills the upper left corner, perhaps representing a tree. The area to its right is filled with baby blue edged with white. The artist signed the lower right, “Juan Gris.”
Juan Gris, Ace of Clubs and Four of Diamonds, 1915, oil on board, Gift of Robert and Mercedes Eichholz, 2014.17.12

Ace of Clubs and Four of Diamonds

Juan Gris · 1915 · oil on board ·  Accession ID  2014.17.12

Georges Rouault, The Friar, c. 1930, oil on board, Gift of Robert and Mercedes Eichholz, 2014.17.23

The Friar

Georges Rouault · c. 1930 · oil on board ·  Accession ID  2014.17.23

Jean-Louis Forain, The Race Track, c. 1891, gouache on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.18

The Race Track

Jean-Louis Forain · c. 1891 · gouache on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.18

Painted with wide strokes in almost geometric areas of mottled color, a woman wearing a long black dress stands at the side of a table in this stylized, vertical composition. The table stretches two-thirds of the way across the painting from the right edge, and the woman stands at the left side so her lower body is partially behind the table. Her copper-brown hair appears to be pulled up, and her face is painted as a peach-colored profile but without features. Her hands rest on the table near a white plate holding six yellow orbs, presumably fruit. To the right of the plate is a light brown object lined with orange along its left side, but this form is difficult to interpret because the painting is done in such a broad style. Along the left edge of the painting, a dark, pecan-brown door opens next to a rectangular object, probably a clock, on the beige-colored wall behind the woman and table. The floor is a shade between dusky green and brown. The left edge of the cardboard on which this is painted appears streaked, perhaps lightly or incompletely filled in. The artist signed the lower left corner, “E. Vuillard.
Edouard Vuillard, Woman in Black, c. 1891, oil on cardboard, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.93

Woman in Black

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1891 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1970.17.93

We look slightly down onto a bare, gnarled tree near a gray, dirt path, which leads back to a hamlet in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes, so many details are indistinct. To our left, the gray tree trunk sways to the left as the branches of its skeletal canopy nearly span the width of the painting. The path extends from the lower right corner of the painting into the distance, around a lattice-like fence, which also runs across the width of the canvas. To our right and facing away from us, a person wearing brown pants, a sky-blue shirt, and a gray cap leans his forearms on the chest-high fence as he presumably talks with the woman standing on the other side. She wears a long navy-blue dress with a sea-blue apron and a tan hat. The land enclosed within the fence is painted with bands of peanut brown and sage green. Another woman wearing a slate-blue skirt, a sky-blue shirt, and a white cap walks away from us down the path using a cane or walking stick. To her right is a thicket of loosely painted moss-green and rust-brown foliage. Across a gully in the distance, a white picket fence separates us from the small village. The buildings have white or beige walls and pitched terracotta-red, tan, or denim-blue roofs. Beyond these structures, flax-brown trees are silhouetted against a light blue sky with fluffy white clouds. The artist signed and dated the painting in dark brown in the lower left corner: “C. Pissarro. 1872.”
Camille Pissarro, The Fence, 1872, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.31

The Fence

Camille Pissarro · 1872 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.31