Provenance

Sir George Donaldson

British, 1845 - 1925

Explore Selected Works

Thomas Gainsborough, Frances Susanna, Lady de Dunstanville, c. 1786, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.706

Frances Susanna, Lady de Dunstanville

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1786 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.79.706

We look across low, rolling hills at a skyline with a tower, windmills, church steeples, and the rooflines of a distant town, beneath a pale blue sky filled with billowing white and ash-gray clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition. The grass and scrubby vegetation closest to us is warmed with sunlight coming from the left side, and is painted in tones of mustard yellow, chocolate brown, and hints of sage green. The light falls across a road curving in from the lower right, where a group travels toward us. Two men wearing soft hats and rust-red tunics walk before a black carriage pulled by four gray horses. The coachman is wrapped in a cloak the same red as the men in front, and one occupant is visible inside. A man on horseback, dressed in a dark cloak and hat, rides alongside, with a skinny, pale brown dog trotting in front of him. A narrow, gleaming sliver of water with a flat-bottomed boat is to the left, just beyond the road. We see the boat from the long side, with three men near one end and bundles in the other. Another sailboat floats in the river, which winds into the distance to our left. Two more masted ships are docked in the distance, their sails furled. The clouds cast the back half of the landscape in shadow, so it is painted in cool tones of laurel green to capture the densely packed buildings of the town. Windmills and spires suggest more towns along the rise and in the deep distance. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “VGoyen 1646.”
Jan van Goyen, View of Rhenen, 1646, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.136.33

View of Rhenen

Jan van Goyen · 1646 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.33

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Walnut Serving Table with Herms and Sphinxes

French 16th Century · second half 16th century · walnut ·  Accession ID  1942.9.372

A nude, muscular man with wings on his ankles balances on the toes of one foot as the other leg and one arm raise up, creating a spiral that moves from the toes of his weight-bearing foot to the top of his opposite, raised hand in this freestanding bronze sculpture. In this photograph, his body is angled to our left and he looks off over his right shoulder, farther from us, so we see his face in profile. He wears a smooth, dish-like helmet with wings to each side over short, curly hair. He has a long, straight nose, and his lips are parted. His right arm, farther from us, reaches high into the air with his index finger pointing upward. He holds a scepter tucked near his side with his other hand, closer to us. The staff is as tall as the man’s torso, and has two snakes entwined up its length with wings at the top. His right leg is raised behind him as he leans a bit forward over the other toes, which balance on a narrow wedge. The wedge is held in the mouth of a human head tipped back so it rests on the disk-like base.
Anonymous Artist, Mercury, c. 1780/c. 1850, bronze, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.131

Mercury

Anonymous Artist · c. 1780/c. 1850 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1937.1.131

Two men and a dog walk or stand on a rutted dirt road that stretches into the distance in front of us, between a grove of trees to our left and a shallow, narrow canal or ditch to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the composition, and puffy white clouds float across a pale blue sky above. Outlined against the sky, the leaves of some of the trees to our left are olive or moss green, and others are golden yellow. Tiny in scale and a distance from us, the men wear dark, brimmed hats and dark pants and shoes or boots. One wears a crimson-red shirt or jacket and the other has something white, presumably a sack, flung across one shoulder over a dark jacket. The men walk or pause near a short row of three trees between the path and the canal to our right. Farther back and almost lost in shadow to our left, a third person is painted as a dark silhouette walking near the grove of trees. The water in the canal shimmers between marine blue and pale rust brown. The area beyond the canal is flat fields. Painted as a faint gray silhouette along the far distant horizon, the spires of a church and other buildings indicate a town in the deep distance to our right. A few dots of dark paint suggest birds flying high over the fields to our right. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, making the first two letters into an intertwined monogram: “MHobbema.”
Meindert Hobbema, Wooded Landscape with Figures, c. 1658, oil on panel, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2015.143.13

Wooded Landscape with Figures

Meindert Hobbema · c. 1658 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2015.143.13

Thomas Gainsborough, Francis Basset, Lord de Dunstanville, c. 1786, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.705

Francis Basset, Lord de Dunstanville

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1786 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.79.705

Dozens of people stand, skate, play a game like hockey, or ride horse-drawn sleds on a frozen river that winds along a town to our left and into the distance in this nearly square landscape painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the composition, and the sky above is filled with ivory-white clouds billowing up against a pale blue sky. Some of the men wear tall hats, hip-length capes over jackets, and breeches over stockings, while others are more simply dressed with rounded hats. Several of the women wear wide, pleated, plate-like neck ruffs, fur muffs, and long dresses, while others wear aprons over peanut-brown and muted blue dresses. The scene is alive with activity, including a man looking at us as he balances rakishly on one skate near the lower right corner, and a young girl sitting in a sled and pushing herself along with sticks nearby. The trees lining the snow-covered, riverside path are bare and the village to our left is painted in tones of pale tan and white. In the distance the snowy earth blends into the soft blue sky and fluffy clouds above. The artist signed the work as if he had painted his name and the date on the face of a wooden fence in the lower left corner: “AV DN 1645.”
Aert van der Neer, Winter in Holland: Skating Scene, 1645, oil on panel, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.136.37

Winter in Holland: Skating Scene

Aert van der Neer · 1645 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2014.136.37

Anonymous Artist, Pietro Perugino, Madonna and Child with Two Angels, Saint Rose, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, late 1480s/early 1490s, oil on panel, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2015.19.41

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, Saint Rose, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Anonymous Artist, Pietro Perugino · late 1480s/early 1490s · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2015.19.41

Gerard ter Borch the Younger, Maria van Suchtelen, c. 1666, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.136.47

Maria van Suchtelen

Gerard ter Borch the Younger · c. 1666 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.47

Shown from the hips up, a young boy with pale, peachy skin wears a voluminous, black cloak that nearly falls off his shoulders over a rose-pink tunic, with a sword hanging from one hip in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, and he looks off to our left with dark brown eyes under gently arched brows. He has a wide nose, and his pink lips are closed with the corners pulled slightly back. His skin is smooth and his cheeks slightly flushed. His dark brown hair is cut close and comes to a point in front of his ears. His tunic is painted with dusky pink highlights against wine-red to suggest a sheen across a vertically striped, leafy pattern. The garment has a high neck lined with a white ruffle and has a row of buttons down the front. His black coat has wide lapels that reach beyond his shoulders, and the puffy sleeves gather on his arms. The coat has a silvery-white cross over the chest to our right. The left and right arms of the cross are lost in the folds but the arms at the top and bottom are forked at the ends. The boy’s pine-green belt is edged with gold, and the hilt of the sword is angled toward us on his left hip, to our right. He holds one fawn-brown glove in his right hand, to our left, and his other arm disappears behind the folds of his coat. The background is deep olive green, almost brown. The artist signed the painting with dark paint near the right edge of the canvas near the boy’s shoulder, “TITANVS F.”
Titian, Ranuccio Farnese, 1541-1542, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.11

Ranuccio Farnese

Titian · 1541-1542 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.2.11