Sam Salz

American, born Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Poland) 1894 - 1981

Explore Selected Works

See all 19 works of art
Eugène Boudin, Ships and Sailing Boats Leaving Le Havre, 1887, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.7

Ships and Sailing Boats Leaving Le Havre

Eugène Boudin · 1887 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.7

Auguste Renoir, Peaches on a Plate, 1902/1905, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.79

Peaches on a Plate

Auguste Renoir · 1902/1905 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.79

A pale turquoise footbridge arching over a pond lined with tall grasses and filled with petal-pink and butter-yellow waterlilies spans this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with touches of vibrant color. In the top third of the composition, the shallowly arched bridge nearly touches the top edge of the canvas, and it extends off each side. The shadows on the bridge are painted with eggplant purple. Bands of waterlilies gently zigzag into the distance on the surface of the water. The spring and emerald-green grasses growing along the banks fill the space around and over the pond, and they blend into a screen of trees beyond that enclose the scene. The green of the grasses and trees is reflected in the surface of the water, as is the underside of the bridge. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower right corner: “Claude Monet 99.”
Claude Monet, The Japanese Footbridge, 1899, oil on canvas, Gift of Victoria Nebeker Coberly, in memory of her son John W. Mudd, and Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1992.9.1

The Japanese Footbridge

Claude Monet · 1899 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1992.9.1

Shown from about the waist up, a woman with pale, peachy skin and dark hair holds a blond, light-skinned child on her lap at a table as they play with several small toys in this horizontal painting. The portrait was painted with blended brushstrokes, giving the work a soft look. We look slightly down onto the pair, who are close to us as they nearly fill the composition. The woman sits at the far corner of the wooden table. Her black hair is pulled up and bangs frame her round face. She has rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and she smiles as she gazes down at the toy rooster she holds in her right hand, to our left. She wears a rose-pink, high necked garment with loose, long sleeves. Her other hand wraps around the torso of the child on her lap. The child faces our left in profile. Shaggy, strawberry-blond hair falls across his high forehead and down around the collar of his white shirt. He has a short, snub nose, flushed cheeks, and his coral-red lips are parted. He looks toward the toy rooster as he stands a doll up on the table with one hand. The doll has a white shirt, topaz-blue sash around the waist, and a red skirt, and three white sheep stand and lie on the table nearby. To our right, the wall behind the pair is patterned with loosely painted peachy-pink and white forms, presumably flowers, against a forest-green background. Vertical bands of smoke-gray to our left suggest drapes hanging from above. The artist signed the work in small red letters at the upper right corner: “Renoir.”
Auguste Renoir, Child with Toys - Gabrielle and the Artist's Son, Jean, 1895-1896, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.36

Child with Toys - Gabrielle and the Artist's Son, Jean

Auguste Renoir · 1895-1896 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.36

We look across a river at a bridge that spans the center of this horizontal landscape, which is painted entirely with broad, visible brushstrokes in pastel colors. The straight deck of the bridge crosses the center of the composition but angles slightly away from us as it moves to our right. The four low arches of the bridge are painted with cotton candy pink and pale apricot. The sky above is painted loosely with light aquamarine blue and watery turquoise. A few vertical strokes of paint over the bridge suggests buildings along the riverbank beyond. The bridge is reflected in the water below so the blue, green, orange, and pink swirl together. The artist signed the painting in violet-purple letters in the lower right corner: “Claude Monet.”
Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset, 1904, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.28

Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset

Claude Monet · 1904 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.28

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Italian Woman (La Morieri), c. 1872, oil on canvas, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1954.6.1

Italian Woman (La Morieri)

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · c. 1872 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1954.6.1

Two pale-skinned little girls sit back-to-back on a sandy beach, almost filling the width of this vertical painting. The girls wear matching pale, ice-blue pinafores over short sleeve, ocean-blue dresses. Both sit with their legs stretched in front of them and angled to our right. The girl closest to us, to our left, looks down at the denim-blue pail and wooden shovel she holds between her ankles. She holds the long-handled shovel in her near hand with the end inside the pail. She has a chubby, flushed, round face with blond hair and rosy arms and legs. She wears black shoes and appears to have a brown sock on her near leg but a dark blue sock on the other. Her companion sits just beyond her and to our right with her body turned away from us. Her wide-brimmed straw hat is trimmed with a tomato-red ribbon tied in a bow at the front. The hat hides her face, and her outstretched legs are encased in olive-green stockings. Her near hand reaches across her lap to grab the pail sitting on the far side of her legs. The beach meets the pale blue and aquamarine ocean in the upper third of the painting. A patch of strokes and daubs of dark blue and peach near the upper left and a tan wedge in the water to our right are painted loosely along the shoreline. Two white sailboats and a horizontal white dash with three dark blue dots drift on the water. The artist signed the lower right, “Mary Cassatt.”
Mary Cassatt, Children Playing on the Beach, 1884, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.19

Children Playing on the Beach

Mary Cassatt · 1884 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.19

A small, shaggy, black and white dog stands in a wood paneled room with its body angled to our right but turning its head, pink tongue out, to our left in this vertical painting. The animal is painted with loose brushstrokes that evoke the dog’s long, feathery fur. The dog peers to our left with golden brown eyes. It is black along its flanks and ears, with a stripe of white down the center of the head, and on the muzzle. The chest, belly, and legs are also white, and the bushy tail, which curls up and out like a fountain, is a mixture of black and white. Leaning on the paneling behind the dog to our right is a light wood walking stick. An object, presumably a stuffed toy in the shape of a person wearing a long black robe lined in crimson, lies on the brownish sage-green floor in front of the dog. The dog’s name, “TAMA,” appears in tan block letters at the upper left. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, "Manet."
Edouard Manet, Tama, the Japanese Dog, c. 1875, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.12

Tama, the Japanese Dog

Edouard Manet · c. 1875 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1995.47.12

Edouard Vuillard, Landscape of the Ile-de-France, c. 1894, oil on cardboard, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995.47.14

Landscape of the Ile-de-France

Edouard Vuillard · c. 1894 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1995.47.14

Two bottles, a carafe, drinking glass, plate, knife, and loaf of bread are arranged on a table covered with a white cloth in this horizontal still-life painting. The narrow table angles from the lower left toward the wall to our right. The bright white cloth is slightly rumpled, and the shadows are painted with silvery gray. A clear glass, square-bodied bottle holding amber-brown liquid extends off the left edge of the canvas. Next to it, a long-necked carafe filled halfway with clear liquid has a low, wide belly. The black handle of the knife angles toward us in the lower left corner, the blade pointing back to the other objects on the table. Just beyond the knife is a glass with a low stem and tall bowl, a silver-colored plate holding yellow material, perhaps bread or butter, and a green bottle filled about a third of the way with dark liquid, presumably red wine. The long loaf of bread is at the far side of the table. One round, crusty end of the loaf has been broken off and lies nearby. The room behind the table has nickel-gray walls on either side of a brown rectangle, perhaps a door or panel. A dark brown square along the top of the composition is hard to interpret. The objects and setting are loosely painted so some details are indistinct.
Claude Monet, Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine, c. 1862/1863, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.32

Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine

Claude Monet · c. 1862/1863 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.32

Bibliography

1974

  • Esterow, Martin. "The very special world of Sam Salz." Art News 73 (May 1974):36-40

1976

  • Fabiani, Martin. Quand j'etais marchand de tableaux. Paris, c. 1976:76-77, 81

1989

  • Les Donateurs du Louvre. Paris, 1989:315