Mrs. Catherine G. Curran

1926 - 2007

Explore Selected Works

Circles, stars, birds, and crescent shapes are painted against a tent-shaped structure in this pale-toned, abstracted watercolor and drawing. The tent shape has three peaks near the top and is stepped across the bottom. Where what might be called the roof flares over the straighter side walls are an R to the left and, to the right, an N with a curling, red swirl off the top right stem of the letter. Three gray birds with oversized blue eyes are painted in a field of other geometric shapes in shades of cobalt blue, muted purple, mint green, and faint yellow. A cluster of nested, curving pink lines in the lower left corner suggest a rose. The background is mostly white with three circles in shades of purple, and the paper is saturated with red and yellow that bleed into each other across the bottom edge. The artist signed the top left corner of the paper, “Klee.” The watercolor is mounted on cardboard. On that cardboard is written, “1917 92” to the lower left and “Persische Nachtigallen” to the lower right.
Paul Klee, Persische Nachtigallen (Persian Nightingales), 1917, gouache, watercolor, and pen and black ink over graphite on laid paper, mounted on cardboard; the sheet bordered at the top with yellow paper strip mounted to support, Gift of Catherine Gamble Curran and Family, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1990.59.2

Persische Nachtigallen (Persian Nightingales)

Paul Klee · 1917 · gouache, watercolor, and pen and black ink over graphite on laid paper, mounted on cardboard; the sheet bordered at the top with yellow paper strip mounted to support ·  Accession ID  1990.59.2

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