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Palais Galliera

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Clouds hunker over a water-logged street that separates us from the end of a row of buildings in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted, especially in the sky and water. The lowest level of the building across from us is apricot orange. The second story is pale peach, and dormered windows cut into the gray and then brown rooflines above. The words “AS’ NICOLAS” are painted in gray near the top of the second level, and more letters on the level below are illegible. The roofline drops down a level where it meets the structure next to it, along the left edge of the canvas. Two women in long skirts stand at a darkened, open doorway near the front corner of the structure. A sign on the side of the building hangs from a horizontal arm over three men in and near a shallow boat, which is being propelled by a man who stands in the stern with a long stick. The street is so wet that it first appears to be a canal or river. It is only when we notice dashes of mauve, pale pink, and gray to our left that we realize the cobblestone road is flooded. A band of buildings with tan walls and black or red roofs spans the right two-thirds of the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up this composition. A grove of cinnamon-brown trees and some open structures could be a submerged park in the near distance. Two poles and some spindly trees to our right are reflected in the water. Dark forms around these areas could be more people. Pale blue and very pale pink whip together in the sky, suggesting churning clouds veiling the blue sky. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower left corner, “Sisley 72.”
Alfred Sisley, Flood at Port-Marly, 1872, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.38

Flood at Port-Marly

Alfred Sisley · 1872 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.38

This vertical still life painting shows a display of dead pheasants, slabs of meat and ribs, and fruit, all arranged on a tabletop close to us. Five golden pears sit on a wooden stool in front of the table, to the left of center. More than a dozen pheasants are arranged belly up on a gold platter with pedestal foot on the table to our left. Their plucked bodies are covered with a layer of white, textured lard while the feathers on their heads and neck are left intact. Two of the three fully plucked birds stacked on a tousled white tablecloth to our right are wrapped in what looks like paper at first glance but turns out to be thin slices of meat, and tied with twine. A woven wicker basket with at least eight oranges rests on the opening of a tall copper cooking pot to our right, behind the plucked birds. A rack of ribs and slab of meat with some entrails hang from hooks in a horizontal rail that is cropped by the top edge of the painting. The palette is dominated with warm browns, ochre, and white, with touches of green, orange, and blue.
Alexandre-François Desportes, Still Life with Dressed Game, Meat, and Fruit, 1734, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 2012.11.1

Still Life with Dressed Game, Meat, and Fruit

Alexandre-François Desportes · 1734 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2012.11.1

From low on a hillside, we look up at a light-skinned woman and boy standing in tall grass against a sunny blue sky in this vertical painting. The woman stands at the center of the composition, and the moss-green parasol she holds over her head almost brushes the top edge of the canvas. Her body faces our left but she turns her head to look at us. Her long dress is painted largely with strokes of pale blue and gray with a few touches of yellow. Her voluminous skirts swirl around her legs to our left. She holds the parasol with both hands, and her brown hair is covered with a hat. Long strokes of white paint across her face suggest a veil fluttering in the breeze. The tall grass she stands in is dotted with buttercup yellow and plum purple, and she casts a long diagonal shadow along the grass toward us. The young boy seems to stand on the other side of the hill, since the grass and flowers comes up to his waist. He wears a white jacket and pale yellow straw hat. His arms are by his sides, and he seems to look off into the distance to our left. A sunny blue sky behind the people is dotted with bright blue clouds. The painting is created with loose brushstrokes throughout, and they are especially choppy in the clouds. The artist signed and dated the painting in royal-blue letters at the lower right: “Claude Monet 75.”
Claude Monet, Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.29

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son

Claude Monet · 1875 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.29

A woman bends double to tend a garden that stretches before us in front of two houses in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with short, visible brushstrokes with a palette dominated by spring, pine, and celery green and earthy tan, peanut, and chestnut brown. Touches of canary yellow, pale pink, coral, and ruby red suggest sunflowers, roses, and other flowers. The woman wears a long, steel-gray skirt and a long-sleeved olive-green shirt. Her brown hair is bound up, and her face and hands, indicated with only a few short swipes of paint, are pale peach. She stoops over a light green patch to our right of center near a bundle of sticks or a group of tall dried stems, to our right. Leafy greens have been planted in rows to our left. Across from us, beyond the cultivated rows, masses of flowers grow in a band that nearly spans the width of the composition. Beyond, a gray stone house with a dark gray roof and a second brick red roof rise above the plants and trees. The pale blue sky above is dotted with cotton-white clouds. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower left corner: “C. Pissarro 1898.”
Camille Pissarro, The Artist's Garden at Eragny, 1898, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.54

The Artist's Garden at Eragny

Camille Pissarro · 1898 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.54

Two sailboats and a rowboat float on a glistening, azure-blue river spanned by a stone bridge to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible strokes and dashes throughout so some details are indistinct. An area of asparagus and moss-green dabs creates a patch of grassy riverbank in the lower right corner of the painting. The rippling, sun-dappled surface of the river is created with short parallel strokes of pale pink, caramel brown, white, sage green, and light blue. An empty sailboat, with its sails tightly furled or removed all together, floats near us to our left of center. It has a single tall, pale wood mast. A similar pole rises from the bottom edge of the picture, presumably the mast of another ship below us or out of our view. Farther out on the water and to our left is another sailboat with full white sails catching the sunlight. The final vessel is loosely painted with a few swipes of goldenrod yellow, black, white, and pink to suggest two people sitting in a rowboat, one of them holding a pink parasol. The gray stone bridge is shaded on our side with denim blue along the faces of the four arches we can see. Several people, painted with a few touches of peach and black, stand at the railing. The bridge angles from near the upper right corner of the canvas to almost the middle of the composition, where it meets a narrow, three-story coral-pink and light gray building. A two-story, white building sits a short distance to its left. They bask in warm sunlight against a row of emerald and olive-green trees. A baby-blue sky scattered with puffy white clouds spans the upper half of the composition. The artist signed the lower right with dark red letters, “Claude Monet.”
Claude Monet, The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1874, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983.1.24

The Bridge at Argenteuil

Claude Monet · 1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.24

From a sandy beach, we look across a sun-drenched body of water enclosed by a long, sand-colored, crenelated wall in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted, especially in the beach closer to us and in the water, which is a blend of aquamarine blue and honeydew green. The beach has a few areas of celery-green growth. The shoreline stretches away along the left side of the painting, back to an area with emerald-green trees. A few boats, painted with swipes of black and peanut brown, are pulled up to the beach near the trees. Spanning the right two-thirds of the composition, the wall angles away from us so the closest part of the wall is to our right. There is a round, stout tower at the end of the wall to our left and another near the right edge of the canvas, though the wall continues beyond that tower. There is an arched doorway about halfway long the length of the wall. The water is smoothly painted with only a few ripples where the tower to our right reflects in the surface. In the narrow space between the beach to our left and the wall to our right, a few buildings, a windmill, and more trees line the horizon in the distance. The top half of the painting is given over to a topaz-blue sky, with only a few puffy white clouds near the horizon.
Frédéric Bazille, The Western Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes, 1867, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.1

The Western Ramparts at Aigues-Mortes

Frédéric Bazille · 1867 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.1

The image shows a drawing of a person from the knees up, lying on their back with their head tilted to the side and arms resting at their sides. The person's facial features are soft, with closed eyes and a relaxed mouth, and their medium length, slightly wavy hair is visible. They are wearing a buttoned shirt with a high collar in earthy tones with hints of red and shading, depicted with a focus on capturing the folds and textures. The background is a light, solid color, emphasizing the figure's form and posture without any additional elements.
Edgar Degas, Fallen Jockey (study for "Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey"), c. 1866, black chalk and pastel on brown wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1999.79.11

Fallen Jockey (study for "Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey")

Edgar Degas · c. 1866 · black chalk and pastel on brown wove paper ·  Accession ID  1999.79.11

We look slightly down onto a silvery-gray beach nestled in a hilly, curving coastline to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. A flat expanse of beach stretches in front of us to meet the water to our left. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and the sky above is nearly filled with heather-gray and white clouds, with only a few patches of light blue sky. Several earth-brown and black boats are pulled up onto the beach, to our left. A few poles and one anchor lie among them. A single, light gray and white pole lies perpendicular to the rest, coming toward us in the sand, higher up on the beach. Along the beach, beyond these boats, a man stands next to a woman holding a baby. The man wears an aquamarine-blue shirt and black pants and cap, and the woman wears a dress with a gray shirt and black skirt, partially covered by a cream-white apron. Several other adults and children stand and sit near boats to either side of the pair. The people are loosely painted, with only a few swipes and touches of paint, so details are indistinct. To our right, moss-green and camel-brown dunes rise from the beach, which lead to higher hills along the shoreline. The beach curves away from us to our right and then back out to our left, like a backward C. A sailboat with a fawn-brown sail sits along the beach at the curve, in the distance. A few buildings, painted with gray, yellow, red, and navy blue perch atop some hills, and more are suggested with dabs and strokes of slate blue and parchment white in the valley between hills. Farthest from us, the land rises to a high, long, flat promontory that extends about two-thirds of the way across the painting. The water in the bay is frosty, seafoam green, and a few strokes of white along the shore suggest waves. The water’s surface is mostly flat with a couple small, ink-black boats floating near the left edge and more along the horizon. The artist signed the work in brown paint in the lower right corner, “Claude Monet.”
Claude Monet, Sainte-Adresse, 1867, oil on canvas, Gift of Catherine Gamble Curran and Family, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.59.1

Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet · 1867 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1990.59.1

The image depicts three figures in white outfits with pointed hats shooting at birds over a body of water. The horizon is at the top of the image, with land extending to the left where a small structure is visible. The scene shows careful brushstrokes detailing the water and land textures. Earthy sepia tones dominate the color palette. Birds can be seen in the water, with two taking flight as a dog approaches from the shore. A fir tree on the far right frames the scene's action.
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Punchinellos Hunting Waterfowl, c. 1800, pen and brown ink with brown wash over charcoal on laid paper, Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, 2006.11.23

Punchinellos Hunting Waterfowl

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo · c. 1800 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over charcoal on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2006.11.23

Jean-Pierre Norblin, Fête Champêtre with Game of Hot Cockles (La Main Chaude), before 1774, graphite with pen and gray and brown ink with gray wash on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2018.174.2

Fête Champêtre with Game of Hot Cockles (La Main Chaude)

Jean-Pierre Norblin · before 1774 · graphite with pen and gray and brown ink with gray wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2018.174.2