Alphonse Kann

French, 1870 - 1948

Explore Selected Works

Anonymous Artist, Portrait of a Man, 18th century, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1943.7.3

Portrait of a Man

Anonymous Artist · 18th century · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.7.3

Jean-Baptiste Deshays, Herdsmen Driving Cattle across a Stream, c. 1760, oil and brown wash over black chalk on laid paper laid down on board, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1999.19.4

Herdsmen Driving Cattle across a Stream

Jean-Baptiste Deshays · c. 1760 · oil and brown wash over black chalk on laid paper laid down on board ·  Accession ID  1999.19.4

Shown from about the knees up, a young woman sits in a chair angled to our right but she turns her face to look at us in this loosely painted, vertical portrait. Her chair has a rounded back and arms made from what looks like bent, woody vines, and the background is a solid field of pale aqua. Her dark hair is parted in the middle and tied at the nape of her neck with a red ribbon. Dark eyebrows curve over brown eyes, and she has a rounded nose, and her petal-pink lips are slightly parted. Her pale peach skin is tinged with green on her face and hands. Her right arm, on our left, rests along the arm of the chair. In her other hand, which rests in her lap, she holds a sprig of blooming oleander, with light pink flowers and green leaves. The bodice of her high-necked dress is striped with brick red and royal blue, and is lined with a row of round gold buttons down the front. The sleeves come down to her forearms and the cuffs and collar at her neck are white. Her full skirt is royal blue with pumpkin-orange dots. The brushwork is loose throughout and individual brushstrokes are visible, especially in the stripes of her bodice and the patchy peach tones that make up her skin.
Vincent van Gogh, La Mousmé, 1888, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.151

La Mousmé

Vincent van Gogh · 1888 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.151

Francesco Guardi, Fanciful View of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, c. 1785, oil on canvas, Gift of Howard Sturges, 1956.9.2

Fanciful View of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome

Francesco Guardi · c. 1785 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.9.2

We look across a placid pond at sandstone-white buildings with brown and terracotta-red roofs nestled within a grove of green trees and plants in this vertical landscape painting. To our left, the brown roofs cover extensions to the main building, which has the terracotta roof. Between us and the buildings, the remains of a slate-gray wall are partially hidden by a vine or tree. The plants in front of the buildings are created with short daubs of yellow and green with touches of blue. The pond or other small body of water close to us spans the lower width of the canvas. The plants are reflected in the water's smooth surface. The trees to our right and behind the house have olive-green trunks stretching beyond the top edge of the composition. Their leaves blend together to fill the space next to and behind the house with a patchwork of shades of emerald, pine, and celery green. These greens are layered with short, angled strokes over smoother patches, and they fill the upper third of the composition. Patches of orange and a slice of azure-blue sky are visible among the leaves on the left side over the brown roofs. The artist has signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “P. Cezanne 73.”
Paul Cezanne, House of Père Lacroix, 1873, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.102

House of Père Lacroix

Paul Cezanne · 1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.102

A kneeling woman and a sitting man are on either side of a nude baby boy as a bearded man, God, and winged angels hover in the sky over a deep landscape. This vertical panel has a rounded top. The people all have pale skin with pink cheeks, white-blond or gray hair, and wear robes in shades of carnation pink, azure blue, and buttercup yellow. The woman is larger in scale than the man sitting opposite her, and she has notably pale, white-colored skin. In the right half of the painting, she kneels facing inward over the baby with her palm and fingertips together in front of her chest. She looks down and to our left, past the baby, with pale gray eyes under thin brows. She has a long, delicate nose, thin lips, and a pointed chin. Her ice-blond hair is pulled up around a white band, and curls fall down past her shoulders. Her blue cloak is lined with white. The baby lies facing her on one end of the cloak, propped up on blue and dark pink pillows. The baby has a round pate and tiny features. He crosses his ankles and holds one hand up with the first two fingers raised. The man sitting to the left is balding with gray hair and a curly beard. His wide-set eyes slope down at the outer corners, and he looks down and to the right with his lips parted. He is barefoot and holds a short staff in one hand. The woman, baby, and man have disk-like gold halos. A canteen hangs from the low branch of a tree, and a sack lies at its foot just beyond the man. The ruins of a red brick arch and a shorn tree trunk support a thatched roof near the left edge of the painting. The rocky ground gives way to grassy hills dotted with trees in the background. A river winds to the horizon, which comes over halfway up the composition. Two birds float on the water and two bridges span it. A conical hill rises along the right edge of the painting. Against a pale blue sky in the top third, God has a beard, a lined forehead, and hooded eyes. He floats supported and surrounded by fourteen youths with short, gold wings. Seemingly countless winged baby heads painted in tones of cobalt blue create a cloud of its own behind God and the youths. Four older angels hover below. Two, who wear pink, have their hands together in prayer and the other two, wearing blue or black, cross their arms.
Francesco di Giorgio Martini, The Nativity, with God the Father Surrounded by Angels and Cherubim, c. 1470, tempera on panel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941.100.2; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.8 , 1952.5.8.combined

The Nativity, with God the Father Surrounded by Angels and Cherubim

Francesco di Giorgio Martini · c. 1470 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.8.combined

Bibliography

1986

  • Hahnloser-Ingold, Margrit. "Collecting Matisses of the 1920s in the 1920s," in Matisse: The Early Years in Nice. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986: 243-244.

1989

  • Les Donateurs du Louvre. Paris, 1989:240

1998

  • Buomberger, Thomas. Raubkunst Kunstraub: Die Schweiz und der Handel mit gestohlenen Kulturgütern zur Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Zurich, 1998:119-120.

2001

  • Francini, Esther Tisa, Anja Heuss and George Kreis, Fluchtgut-Raubgut: Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933-1945 und die Frage der Restitution. Zurich, 2001:384-385.