Provenance

Count Cecil Charles Pecci-Blunt

died 1965

Explore Selected Works

A bearded man, a young man, and five monks stand in a cream-white hall hung with a map and paintings in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The scene is lit from windows lining the wall to our left, where three monks stand, presumably talking. They and the other two monks wear long white robes with marine-blue hoods and cloth panels that hang down the fronts of the cassocks. Two monks have their hoods up and the other two have their hair cut into rings around their heads. The bearded man, Christopher Columbus, stands to the right on the other side of the hall, looking at a map hanging there. He has chin-length, dark hair and wears a bronze-brown, knee-length jacket, dark blue, knee-length pantaloons, and golden yellow stockings. His right hand, closer to us, is planted palm out against his hip, and he holds a red hat in that hand. The other foot is perched on a long bench that stretches along that wall. The young man sits and leans back on the bench with one forearm along the bench’s armrest. His other hand rests on Columbus’s knee, and Columbus rests his hand on that. The boy has long brown hair and wears a red cap, a parchment-white robe over yellow sleeves, sage-green stockings, and laced, toeless boots. Two bundles and a long stick are against the wall on our side of the bench. An object on the floor next to Columbus’s standing leg is covered by a brown cloth. A gold chain and a pink hoof protrude from the blanket. One of the monks standing behind Columbus wears a tight-fitting blue cap. A rosary hangs over his cassock from his waist, and extra panels of blue fabric drape down over his shoulders. Four paintings in our view hang near the high ceiling of the hall, which has arched openings and a pink floor. Doors or oversized shutters swing into view at the far end of the hall. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “Eug. Delacroix. 1838.”
Eugène Delacroix, Christopher Columbus and His Son at La Rábida, 1838, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.127

Christopher Columbus and His Son at La Rábida

Eugène Delacroix · 1838 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.127

Shown from the shins up, a woman with medium-toned skin plays a mandolin in this loosely painted vertical composition. The woman’s body faces us but her head tips to our left and she looks down in that direction with dark eyes. She has a short nose, and her full lips are closed over a rounded chin. Her brown hair falls loosely around her shoulders and is covered by a pumpkin-orange head cloth. Glints at her ears suggest earrings. She wears a beige jacket with puffy, voluminous sleeves over a shell-pink shirt with a high, ruffled collar above a red band. A rose-pink sash is tied around her waist and falls down the front of her long, beige skirt, and red cloth hangs along her right side, to our left. She holds a mandolin in both hands. The background is painted with dabs and mottled tones of earth green, golden brown, and muted blue and white for the sky. Brushstrokes are visible or blended throughout and are especially broad in the clothing and background. The artist signed the lower left corner, “COROT.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gypsy Woman with Mandolin, c. 1870, oil on canvas, Gift of Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt, 1951.21.1

Gypsy Woman with Mandolin

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · c. 1870 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1951.21.1

A pale-skinned woman sits at a table leaning over an open book in a brightly lit room in this loosely painted, horizontal scene. The woman is shown from the knees up, and she sits in the center of the picture with her body angled toward the table to our right. Her wavy, chestnut-brown hair is short or pulled back to either side of a center part. She wears a white shirt under a fern-green jacket. The sleeve on the arm closer to us has slipped down over her shoulder. The portion of her skirt we can see is pale peach with plum-purple stripes. She sits on a wooden chair with a curved and possibly upholstered rust-red back. She rests one elbow on the table and her cheek on that fist. She holds open the pages of a book with her other hand, at the edge of the brown table. The room beyond her has walls and possibly works of art painted with swipes of golden yellow, warm caramel, and dark brown. At first glance, a painting of a landscape could be mistaken for a window on the back wall, but then we notice the tall legs of the easel holding it. The artist signed the lower right, “COROT.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Woman Reading in the Studio, c. 1868, oil on paperboard on wood, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.9

Woman Reading in the Studio

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · c. 1868 · oil on paperboard on wood ·  Accession ID  1985.64.9

From a grassy embankment, we look across a placid body of water to a cluster of cream-white buildings on the far bank in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with blended strokes, giving it a soft and hazy look. Closest to us, dots of canary yellow, sky blue, and white suggest flowers growing on the verdant embankment. Closer to the water, two trees have ash-brown trunks and canopies like clouds of pale sage green. To our left of the trees, a light-skinned woman stands near the water with a bundle on her back. She wears a straw-yellow cap, a shin-length dress, and an apron. A second person wearing a yellow cap and a blue shirt sits facing away from us, to our right of the trees. Buildings and trees along the far bank are reflected in the pale blue water. The villa there is made up of several interconnected buildings with rectangular windows and shallow, gabled, charcoal-gray roofs. One more building is nestled into the trees that surround the complex, to our right. Painted with a few strokes of ocean blue, gray, or pale yellow, at least three people stand or walk along the far bank. The forest stretches across the horizon, which comes a third of the way up the canvas. A few small, puffy white clouds drift across the expanse of blue sky above. The artist signed the painting with black letters in the lower left corner, “Corot.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ville-d'Avray, c. 1865, oil on canvas, Gift of Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt, 1955.9.1

Ville-d'Avray

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · c. 1865 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1955.9.1

Bibliography

1914

  • Massue, Melville Henry [Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval]. The Titled Nobility of Europe. London, 1914. Reprint, London, 1980: 1127.

1928

  • Spreti, Vittorio. Enciclopedia Storico-nobiliare italiana.... 9 vols. Milan, 1928-36: 5: 222-3.