Provenance

Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne

British, 1780 - 1863

Explore Selected Works

A bearded, pale-skinned man with shoulder-length, dark brown hair is shown from the hips up against a dark, emerald-green curtain in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled slightly to our left, while his head turns to look directly at us with dark, shadowed eyes. His chin-length hair is parted down the middle and tucked behind his ears. He wears a dark robe over a white shirt with a high collar. In his left hand, to our right, he holds a folded piece of yellowish paper or cloth, and his other hand rests just below it with fingers pointing downward. He is lit from our right so the far side of his face is thrown into shadow. At his shoulder and to our left, a shelf or table covered with green holds a globe, an open book with pages filled with text, a stack of closed books, and a quill resting in an inkwell. Some of the text in the open book is visible but not clearly legible. Most of the background is filled with the jewel-toned green curtain, but a sliver to the left, behind the objects, is black.
Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of a Humanist, c. 1520, oil on panel transferred to hardboard, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.38

Portrait of a Humanist

Sebastiano del Piombo · c. 1520 · oil on panel transferred to hardboard ·  Accession ID  1961.9.38

A windmill stands on a promontory cutting into a waterway under a partially stormy sky in this square landcape painting. The promontory and mill are painted in muted tones of brown and rust orange, while steel-gray and white clouds encircle a topaz-blue sky above. The promontory juts into the scene from our left, and the front of the windmill is angled to our right so its golden-tan sails catch the light. Silvery water winds around the base of the promontory and extends to a dark green, shadowy bank on the far side. A boat in the lower right corner of the composition is rowed by a man wearing a red jacket and cap. A path runs to the water’s edge from the left edge of the painting, in front of the promontory’s retaining wall, which is shored up with stones or panels. A person in dark clothing close to the windmill seems to rest their arms on the retaining wall, their back to us. Closer to us, a woman holds a child’s hand as they walk down the path to the bank. A bearded man with tattered brown clothes and bare feet stands leaning against the wall near a woman wearing burnt-orange garment. She sits or kneels at the water’s edge in front of a basket of clothes and holds up a brown cloth. The olive-green forms of the trees on the far bank are reflected in the water, and closer inspection reveals two cows near the water there. Charcoal-gray clouds pile up along the left of the painting and span the top edge. There is a brilliant blue sky beyond and a screen of white clouds near the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the canvas.
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Mill, 1645/1648, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.62

The Mill

Rembrandt van Rijn · 1645/1648 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.62