Provenance

Comte d'Arthois

French

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Nine men and women and three pudgy, toddler-aged children gather in small groups under a copse of trees against a deep landscape in this horizontal painting. Most of the people have pale, nearly white skin and a few have darker, peach-toned skin. They all have rosy cheeks, and most have strawberry or honey blond hair. The men and women wear loose robes in shades of topaz and ice blue, vibrant peach, pale pink, or harvest yellow, and the children appear to be nude. Light pours across the scene from the left. Two women sit in the lower left corner of the composition, mostly in shadow presumably created by trees outside our view. One leans toward us holding a tray of fruit with her dress nearly exposing her round breasts. A woman sitting closer to us holds up a fig as a child reaches for the fruit. Closer to us, a muscular man sits on the ground next to an urn the size of a backpack. One child next to the urn sits almost with their back as he holds up a cup, and a gold-colored horn hangs from a ribbon across the torso. Another child other leans forward closer to the man, a bunch of grapes held in both hands. A pile of grape vines with grapes and orange-colored fruit sits between the man and first child. Behind this trio, one woman picks fruit from a leafy tree, which has a grape vine growing around its thick trunk. Another woman sits in the shade of the tree and looks on, a piece of fruit in her hand. The final four people are gathered to the right, where one man supports another who leans limply away from us, one arm slung over his supporter’s shoulders. The partially prone man is bare-chested and wears a crown of grapevine leaves. More leaves are around his waist under a vivid, coral-red cloth, and his feet rest on a pile of figs, fruit, and grapes. A third man in this trio is the only one with a beard. He wears a cheetah animal skin and presses grapes in both hands to fill the cup held by the prone man. A woman stands between the pair, holding more grapes and looking off into the distance. Trees and bushes grow across the left half of the composition, and a distant landscape on the right half opens onto rolling hills and hazy mountains. The sky glows peach along the horizon and deepens to twilight blue across the top half of the painting.
Corrado Giaquinto, Autumn, c. 1740/1750, oil on canvas, Gift of the Rizik Family, 2001.123.1

Autumn

Corrado Giaquinto · c. 1740/1750 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2001.123.1

Eight men and women, two children, and a baby sit or toil in a barren landscape under a thick blanket of clouds in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin, and they wear tunics and robes in shades of golden yellow, salmon or rose pink, crimson red, lapis blue, and honeydew or laurel green. A man to our left of center raises an ax high over one shoulder as he braces a sandaled foot on a fallen tree trunk. Another person squats and holds another thick log nearby, in the lower left corner of the painting. A third person reaches up to brace a bundle of logs, which are bound with a rope, across his back. A bit behind this group, at the center of the composition, two women, a man, and a baby huddle on the ground around a fire. Logs are tied to create a frame from which a big-bellied pot hangs. Closer to us and to our right, a bearded man, woman, and two children sit in the shelter of a rocky overhang. The man sips wine from a glass as he holds the bottle with his other hand. The woman holds a bowl, and the children sit in front of a pot with glowing embers. One child puts food in their mouth, and the other holds a hand up over the heat. A loaf of bread and a jug sit on a white cloth on a bench nearby. Two cows or steers stand near the arched opening of a bridge to our left, and dark blue clouds press down on snow-covered huts in the distance.
Corrado Giaquinto, Winter, c. 1740/1750, oil on canvas, Gift of the Rizik Family, 2002.155.1

Winter

Corrado Giaquinto · c. 1740/1750 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2002.155.1