Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford

British, died 1751

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Shown from the shoulders up, a man with a flushed complexion, wearing a crimson-red cap and garment, looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. He is brightly lit from behind us and the mahogany-brown background is deep in shadow. The man’s shoulders angle to our right, and he turns his head slightly to look at us with brown, deep-set eyes under arched brows. His wispy, auburn-brown goatee is tinged in silvery gray. His nose is slightly bulbous, and his thin lips are tightly closed in a straight line. Wrinkles and jowls give his face a paunchy look. His tall, flat-topped, fez-shaped hat covers his hair. A white, nearly translucent collar curls up along his neck and flares out to points at his collar. Rose-pink highlights on his red cape suggest it is a shiny material, like silk, and it is fastened with several small, dark buttons down the front.
Anonymous Artist, Pope Innocent X, c. 1650, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.80

Pope Innocent X

Anonymous Artist · c. 1650 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.80

Shown from about the hips up, a young, pale-skinned man with curly brown hair stands facing and looking at us, wearing a plum-purple coat under a golden yellow cape in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s oval face is angled a little to our left so he looks out from the corners of his gray eyes. His left eyebrow, on our right, is slightly arched. His skin is smooth and his cheeks lightly flushed. He has a long, straight nose, his pink lips are closed, and there is a faintly painted suggestion of a goatee. Wavy bangs fall across his forehead, and he has curly, chin-length hair. He stands with his right hand, on our left, on his hip, and in his other arm, he holds a wooden staff with a pewter-gray, metal, scoop-like hook at the top. White lace trims the high neck of his garment and the cuffs of his sleeves. Light reflecting off the plum-purple coat suggests a soft material, possibly velvet. Crisp reflections on the deep, butter-yellow cape fastened over one shoulder suggest satin. An emerald-green cloth hanging from the top right corner of the painting falls behind the man’s shoulder. Behind the cloth and to our left, a craggy, rocky outcropping opens to a view of a landscape with a green valley and topaz-blue mountains in the distance. Bands of golden light illuminate the cloudy sky above. The work is inscribed with yellow lettering in the lower right corner to read, “Philip Lord Wharton 1632 about ye age of 19.” The artist’s name is painted in the lower left: “P. Sr Ant: vandike.”
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Philip, Lord Wharton, 1632, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.50

Philip, Lord Wharton

Sir Anthony van Dyck · 1632 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.50

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