Lebrun

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Two men sit playing cards at a narrow table as three more look on and others urinate, sleep, or gather near the entrance of a tavern in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale, peachy skin and wear jackets, pants, and hats in shades of fawn brown, muted marine blue, parchment white, and charcoal gray. The card players take up the bottom left quadrant of the composition. The player to our left holds his cards out so we can see them as he lifts a tall tankard. He sits on a wooden chair with a vivid red cap hanging from one rail on the back. The player across from him sits on a wooden box and has an iron key hanging from the hip we see. He shows his cards to a third man, directly across from us, who sits and leans forward nearly nose-to-nose, smiling broadly with lips parted. That third man wears an orchid-purple hat and earthy brown and blue clothing. He holds a long-stemmed white clay pipe in one hand and the handle of another tall tankard with the other. Two men, both with clay pipes, stand on the far side of the table to watch the action, and another stands facing away from us near the wall to the left, presumably urinating into a pot there. A knee-high jug with a pewter cap sits near the first player and a piece of chalk and a picture of an owl flanked by spectacles and a candle hang on the light brown wall overhead. This room opens onto a larger room beyond, where one man lies belly down on a bench with his face buried in his crossed arms. Another man sits on a bench to the right, and four men gather near the door on the far wall. A woman stands in the partially open door and looks at one of the men. Dishes and vessels line a high shelf to the left of the door, and a fire burns in a high-mantled fireplace to our right. In the lower right corner and again close to us, a barrel, clay dish, white cloth, chopped firewood, and a sleeping dog are near a wooden beam that parallels the edge of the painting. The artist signed the lower right corner, “D. TENIERS FEC,” and, on the picture of the owl are the letters “AA” and the date, 1658.
David Teniers the Younger, Tavern Scene, 1658, oil on panel, Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith, 1975.77.1

Tavern Scene

David Teniers the Younger · 1658 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1975.77.1

Golden sunlight pours across a landscape with three people on horseback and two more people near a flock of sheep, a cow, and a mule in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The horizon is about a third of the way up the composition and is lined with towers on distant, hazy, pale yellow hills. Two of the horses are to the right of center, both facing us. The horse on the left is white, and the rider wears an azure-blue tunic and red brimless cap. The other horse is brown with a white blaze, and its rider wears a red tunic and black cap. That second rider points with a whip to the sitting and standing people near the sheep, to the right. Those two people wear brown jackets, and the standing man has a mustache. The seated person rests a long staff over one shoulder. About half of the nine sheep there lie on the ground, and the others stand. The cow dips her head down to the sheep, and the splay-footed donkey has baskets hung to each side. This grouping is in front of a copse of tall trees that nearly reach the top edge of the composition. The third rider is to our left and a short distance away. That dark brown horse gallops to our right. A short distance away, another herdsman along the left edge of the composition wears a red tunic and brown pants, and he rests a long staff on one shoulder. One cow stands and one lies down next to that herdsman. Sunlight rakes across twigs, leafy plants, scrubby growth, and rocks in the foreground, closest to us. Sailboats float on the waterways that stretch horizontally across the painting in the distance, and the land separating those bodies of water is dotted with spires, windmills, towers, and other structures. A dozen dark birds fly high in the sky, which takes up the top two-thirds of the picture. A bank of iridescent yellow and pearly white clouds trundle across the pale blue sky. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “A.cuijp.”
Aelbert Cuyp, Horsemen and Herdsmen with Cattle, 1655/1660, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.16

Horsemen and Herdsmen with Cattle

Aelbert Cuyp · 1655/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.16

Bernardino Poccetti, The Death of the Blessed Buonagiunta Manetti, c. 1612, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk, squared for transfer with red chalk on light brown laid paper, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.144

The Death of the Blessed Buonagiunta Manetti

Bernardino Poccetti · c. 1612 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk, squared for transfer with red chalk on light brown laid paper ·  Accession ID  2007.111.144