Provenance

Edward Speelman, Ltd.

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A dish of about two dozen figs, a crusty loaf of bread, a tall, black flask, and two wooden vessels are closely gathered on a wooden table or ledge in this vertical still life painting. At the front right, the figs are either deep purple or pale green. The shallow, pale lavender-gray dish in which they are piled has a narrow, scalloped edge. The round loaf of golden-brown bread, with its split top, sits behind and to our left of the figs. In the lower left corner, next to the figs and closest to us, the handle of a knife projects toward us. Its pewter-colored blade angles back away from us. Beyond the bread is a wide-bellied, black, long-necked bottle with a cork. White reflections of windows out of our view to our left glint on the shiny, inky surface. Next to it, to our right, a small wooden barrel is about the size of an American football. At the back right, the cylindrical neck of a copper vessel pokes out of a pile of pale ice shavings, all within a keg-like bucket. The still life is set against a dark brown background.
Luis Meléndez, Still Life with Figs and Bread, c. 1770, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2000.6.1

Still Life with Figs and Bread

Luis Meléndez · c. 1770 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2000.6.1

Agostino Carracci, Landscape with Two Washerwomen, 1580s, pen and brown ink on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.19.1

Landscape with Two Washerwomen

Agostino Carracci · 1580s · pen and brown ink on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1978.19.1

Shown from the waist up, a young girl wearing a slate-gray dress and straw hat stands with her hands clasped in front of her in this vertical portrait painting. The girl has light, peachy skin, and her cheeks are lightly flushed. Her body faces us but she tips her head slightly to her right, our left, and looks off into the distance with dark brown eyes. Her faint eyebrows drawn together, and her cherry-red, full lips slightly turn down at the corners. She has a button nose and a rounded chin line. She has dark blond, straight, shoulder-length hair under a wide, flat-brimmed straw hat. The hat is wrapped around the crown with a checkered white and black bow. Her shoulders slope down as she holds one wrist with the other hand down in front of her. She wears a jumper over a shirt with short white sleeves. At first glance the jumper appears pale gray but closer inspection reveals strokes of pale lilac, ivory white, and cobalt blue. The girl’s features and clothing are painted with loose, visible brushstrokes, and the background behind her is painted with vertical strokes of tan blended with faint green. Short dabs of brighter gold and butter yellow give the impression of sunshine on the brim of the hat and in the girl’s hair. The artist signed the work with loose letters in the lower right corner, “Mary Cassatt.”
Mary Cassatt, Child in a Straw Hat, c. 1886, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.17

Child in a Straw Hat

Mary Cassatt · c. 1886 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.17

Gathered in a round glass vase, a tall bouquet of flowers in shades of light and deep pink, sunshine yellow, and white with pine-green leaves nearly fills this vertical still life painting. Shown against an gray background, the vase sits on a narrow ledge, perhaps made of wood. A label with looping, cursive French text painted in gold against a baby blue background is affixed to the front of the ledge, along the bottom edge of the composition. The text reads, “C'est l'Angelicq main du grad Peinctre de Flore AMBROISE, renommé jusqu' au Rivage Moré.” A few of the flowers draw the eye, including a tulip and iris at the top of the bouquet. To our left, the tulip is mauve pink with cream-colored streaks, and one petal folds down to reveal the stamen inside. Next to it, a damselfly, an insect like a delicate dragonfly, rests on the vibrant yellow iris. The petals curling down from the iris are veined in muted burgundy red. Flowers filling in the bouquet below include a shell-pink cyclamen, a white gardenia, a closed blue and white striped columbine, a slate-blue grape hyacinth, lily of the valley, pale blue forget-me-nots, and a pink peony interspersed with leaves and greenery. The round glass vase has a narrow opening. A sprig of viola rests to our left of the vase on the ledge, and an orange, black, white, and brown butterfly perches on the stem of a pink cyclamen laying to our right of the vase. The artist signed the painting with a monogram and dated it in dark paint to our right on the face of the ledge: “AB 1621.”
Ambrosius Bosschaert, Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase, 1621, oil on copper, Patrons' Permanent Fund and New Century Fund, 1996.35.1

Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase

Ambrosius Bosschaert · 1621 · oil on copper ·  Accession ID  1996.35.1

A tall goblet made with a spiraling nautilus shell on a gold and silver stem, a blue and white lidded, porcelain bowl, an orange, a cut lemon, and a bunched up, woven rug are gathered on a tabletop in front of a black background in this vertical still life painting. Light falling on the objects from our left contrasts sharply with the deep shadow beyond, which makes some details difficult to make out. The objects might be gathered on a silver tray. At the center of the composition, the flagon is made with a shimmering, ivory-colored nautilus shell with its wide opening facing up. The stem is made of gold bands coiling around a silver figurine, which is nearly lost in shadow. To our right, a white porcelain bowl has a rounded bottom and tall sides. It is painted with blue designs around a raised relief showing two people in crimson-red and harvest-gold garments. A utensil sits in the bowl to our right, and the lid, which has a finial in the shape of an animal, rests angled upward, partially in the bowl and partially on the stem of that utensil. A translucent, cylindrical knife handle protrudes toward us, angled to our right, in front of the bowl. A rug with a geometric pattern of rust red, tan, and pine green is bunched next to the bowl, along the right side of the painting. To our left of the nautilus cup, an orange with a stem and green leaves sits next to a bright, glistening lemon at the foot of the cup. Between the two pieces of fruit, the vivid yellow lemon rind has been peeled into a long, curling strip that curves off the front edge of the table.
Anonymous Artist, Still Life with Nautilus Cup, 1665/1670, oil on canvas, Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith, 1974.109.1

Still Life with Nautilus Cup

Anonymous Artist · 1665/1670 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1974.109.1

From our place on a dirt road, a row of buildings and houses extends from the right edge of this painting, into the distance and to our left in this vertical composition. People, all with light skin, come and go through doorways and hatches, work unloading goods next to a horse, and gather under a tattered awning down the road. Most of the people wear hats and dark clothing in tones of brown, black, and golden yellow, with a few touches of brick red. A jumble of objects, including a barrel, a wooden trap, and a ceramic vessel, and some chickens are gathered in the lower right corner of the panel, closest to us. A boy holding a long-necked vessel stands at an open hatch leading to an underground level of the structure nearby. That building has a large, steeply pitched, thatched dormer on a red tile roof. Green vines grow over parts of the peanut-brown stone and brick façade. A white stork with long legs and a long beak stands at a nest built on top of the chimney. A sign hangs above an open door, through which a person leans, and a birdcage hangs below the sign. In front of the open door, two men, one wearing a golden yellow vest and one wearing teal blue, unload large wooden barrels from a horse-drawn sled. The brown horse lifts one back foot off the ground, and the side of his hide is marked, perhaps with a sore. A tall tree with dark green leaves separates the building closest to us from its neighbor. A group of people and children are gathered under an awning there. One boy in the group pets a white, long-haired dog. Nearby, a man using crutches makes his way down the road toward us. A pair of dogs, one black and one brown and white, tussle over something in the lower left corner. The row of buildings extends in a line into the distance with steeply pitched, pointed rooflines. A tower, perhaps for a church, appears in the hazy distance to our left, near the left edge of the panel. Clouds with pale peach tops and lilac-gray undersides sweep across the sky above, parting to reveal on a couple slivers of blue sky beyond. The artist signed and dated the panel with black paint in the lower right corner: “Isack van Ostade 1645.”
Isack van Ostade, Workmen before an Inn, 1645, oil on panel, Gift of Richard A. and Lee G. Kirstein, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.64.1

Workmen before an Inn

Isack van Ostade · 1645 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1991.64.1

Agostino Carracci, Woodland River with a Boat, c. 1590, pen and brown ink on laid paper, Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith, 1978.70.1

Woodland River with a Boat

Agostino Carracci · c. 1590 · pen and brown ink on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1978.70.1

Livestock, woodland animals, and about a dozen people cluster in groups throughout a densely wooded landscape with rocky outcroppings and the ruins of a round structure in this horizontal painting. The people all appear to have light skin. A narrow river curves from near the lower left corner of the composition back around a grove of trees on a spit of land. One white, long-necked bird stands near a rock on the riverbank, and a second bird, shown in flight low over the water, clutches a short snake in its beak. Three deer stand in the deeply shadowed trees, and two goats perch on the rocky cliffs that rise steeply beyond the deer. Across the composition, in the lower right corner, a man wearing a gray jacket and high boots, red pants, and a floppy, wide-brimmed, gray hat stands with a long staff propped on one shoulder. He has ruddy complexion and a bulbous nose. He is surrounded by seven brown, gray, tan, and black cows and three pale gray goats. He and his livestock are backed by a screen of tall, leafy trees. The spaces around the cowherd and the deer to the left are shadowed to create a dark U across the bottom of the landscape, so the sunlit scene beyond is notably lighter in comparison. Just above the center of the composition, plants and trees grow on and among the ruins of the gray, round tower. Two arched openings extending to our left also crumble and are largely taken over with plants. At the base of the tower, water pours from a spigot into a rectangular, presumably stone trough. Three cows drink from the trough while more cows and a herd of about a dozen sheep stand and lie nearby. Several men sit, stand, or kneel near the cows around the trough. Painted loosely with pale gray and tan, several people pass under the archway closest to the tower. One person rides a donkey there. Close by, two elegantly dressed men wearing hats, perhaps turbans, stand and gesture with one arm raised. One man wears a charcoal-gray cloak over a red tunic and pants, and the other wears a forest-green cloak over yellow clothing. Another donkey and at least two smaller animals, perhaps dogs, stand near the men and the second archway, to our left. A grassy hill rises sharply behind the archways to the edge of a dense forest, where the camels, birds, perhaps peacocks, and other men stand. Along the right edge of the painting, beyond the cowherd and cows, the land dips into a wooded valley, painted in tones of pale aquamarine and ice blue. About two dozen birds of varying sizes fly over the tower and valley. White clouds float against the vibrant blue sky. The artist signed and dated the work as if written on the face of the rock near the white birds, “ROELANT SAVERŸ FE 1624.”
Roelandt Savery, Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1624, oil on panel, Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1989.22.1

Landscape with the Flight into Egypt

Roelandt Savery · 1624 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1989.22.1