Provenance

Joseph E. Widener

Widener, Joseph Early
American, 1871 - 1943

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A woman with pale skin, wearing a black dress and holding a full, billowing white ostrich feather, is shown from the hips up against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. She has dark eyes, faint, arched brows, a slightly pink nose, and her pink lips are parted. Light falls from our left, creating shadows under the other cheekbone and along the side of her neck. Her shoulders are covered by a transparent, white, lace-edged wrap fastened with a bow. Her black dress also has wide, white cuffs, exposing a thick, possibly jeweled bracelet on each wrist. She wears two gold rings, one with a clear gem, perhaps a diamond, gold, dangling earrings, and a round pendant necklace. The lush white ostrich feather arches down from her right hand, held at her waist by her opposite hand, clasping that wrist.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan, c. 1656/1658, oil on canvas transferred to canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.68

Portrait of a Lady with an Ostrich-Feather Fan

Rembrandt van Rijn · c. 1656/1658 · oil on canvas transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.68
The sculpture features a person sitting atop a highly decorated base. The person is a man with horns, cloven feet, and a muscular torso. He is nude except for a leaf covering his groin, and he holds a pan flute. He looks up and to the left with an open mouth. Below the seated man, the base of the sculpture is adorned with intricate patterns and reliefs, including winged people, human faces, shells, animals, and cherubs. The sculpture is on a base supported by crouching figures. The sculpture is made of dark-gray material with a metallic sheen, giving it a monochromatic appearance.
Paduan 16th Century, Venetian 16th Century, Incense Burner, c. 1560/1580, bronze, Widener Collection, 1942.9.139

Incense Burner

Paduan 16th Century, Venetian 16th Century · c. 1560/1580 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1942.9.139
The sculpture is a bust depicting a woman with long, curly hair. Her head is slightly tilted upwards and to the side. She wears a garment with puffed sleeves and a draped neckline, adorned with a knot at the center. The sculpture is crafted from marble, giving it a smooth, polished appearance with a predominantly white color, with slight variations in tone. The bust is set on a dark, intricately carved pedestal that contrasts with the lighter tones of the figure above.
Giovanni Battista Foggini, Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, c. 1690, marble, Widener Collection, 1942.9.130

Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

Giovanni Battista Foggini · c. 1690 · marble ·  Accession ID  1942.9.130
Two women with pale skin look out at us from the other side of a rectangular window opening with a shadowy interior behind them in this vertical painting. On our right, in the lower third of the composition, one young woman leans toward us over her left arm, which rests along the window ledge. She bends her right arm and props her chin on her fist. She looks at us with dark brown eyes under dark brows. She has shiny chestnut-brown hair with a strawberry-red bow on the right side of her head, to our left. She has a straight nose, and her full pink lips curve up in a smile. She wears a gossamer-white dress with a wide neckline trimmed in dark gray, with another red bow on the front of her chest. Her voluminous sleeves are pushed back to her elbows. To our left, a second woman peeks around a partially opened shutter. She is slightly older, and she stands next to the first woman with her body facing us. She tilts her head and also gazes at us with dark eyes under dark brown brows. She has dark brown hair covered by an oyster-white shawl. She holds the shawl up with her right hand to cover the bottom half of her face. Her mouth is hidden but her eyes crinkle as if in a smile. Her left arm bends at the elbow as she grasps the open shutter. She also wears a white shirt pushed back to her elbows, and a rose-pink skirt. The frame of the window runs parallel to the sides and bottom of the canvas. The room behind them is black in shadow.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Two Women at a Window, c. 1655/1660, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.46

Two Women at a Window

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo · c. 1655/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.46
Shown from the hips up, a man with pale, peachy skin, dressed in a black suit and tall hat, looks at us from in front of a dark brown background in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our right, almost in profile, but he turns his head to look at us from the corners of his eyes under lifted brows. He has rounded nose, a thin mustache over wide, pink lips, and a deep cleft in his chin. His face is fleshy under his eyes and along his jawline, and he has a slight double chin. The wide brim of his tall black hat casts a shadow across his eyes. Shoulder-length, brown, curly hair falls on a wide, lace-edged bright white collar, which lies flat across his chest and shoulders. Light glints off his black jacket, suggesting a sheen. Wide white, disk-like cuffs encircle his wrists over puffs of voluminous white sleeves that gather on his forearms. A black, velvety cape drapes from the shoulder closer to us and down across his waist. He points to our right with his right arm, closer to us. The fawn-brown glove or pair of gloves he holds in his other hand by his far hip is cut off by the bottom edge of the canvas.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves, c. 1656/1658, oil on canvas transferred to canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.67

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves

Rembrandt van Rijn · c. 1656/1658 · oil on canvas transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.67
A man, woman, several children, a dog, and a chicken work and play outside a two-story, partially vine-covered, brown brick house in this vertical painting. All the people have peachy, light skin. We look slightly down onto a courtyard enclosed by the house to our right and a wall along the back of the yard, a short distance from us. To our right and closest to us, laundry dries on a line over a pile of branches, cast off bricks, and a wooden shovel near the lower right corner. A young girl wearing a white bonnet, a royal-blue shirt, and a long, harvest-yellow skirt sits on the dirt ground, leaning toward a little boy holding the paws of a black and white dog that stands on its hind legs. A broom leans against a fenced-in chicken coop behind the boy, and a bunch of carrots rests on the flat roof of the coop. Beyond the children, a woman sits hunched on a rushed chair, cleaning mussels taken from a wooden bucket and placed in an earthenware dish. A bearded man leans in the open doorway in the courtyard wall looking at the woman and a young girl helps a toddler stand nearby, as a chicken pecks at the ground. The roof slouches atop the brick house along the top edge of the canvas to our right, and the peak of another roof and trees rise above the courtyard wall. Fluffy white clouds float across the bright blue sky in the upper right corner. The artist signed and dated the work in dark paint in the lower center: “Av. Ostade 1673.”
Adriaen van Ostade, The Cottage Dooryard, 1673, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.48

The Cottage Dooryard

Adriaen van Ostade · 1673 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.48
This is a photograph of an ornate glass goblet with a lid. The goblet is elaborately decorated and features a clear, textured glass bowl and stem, topped with a lid. The rim of the lid and base feature gold detailing with an intricate pattern incorporating vibrant colors, including greens and blues. The lid is topped with a ring-like handle. The craftsmanship showcases elegance and attention to detail. The photograph captures the play of light through the textured glass, highlighting the artistry in its design.
Freiburg-im-Breisgau 17th Century, Italian 16th Century, Western European 19th Century, Covered Cup with Serpent Handle, c. 1620/1630 (all but stem and mounts); late 16th century (stem); late 19th century (mounts), rock crystal and enameled gold, Widener Collection, 1942.9.297

Covered Cup with Serpent Handle

Freiburg-im-Breisgau 17th Century, Italian 16th Century, Western European 19th Century · c. 1620/1630 (all but stem and mounts); late 16th century (stem); late 19th century (mounts) · rock crystal and enameled gold ·  Accession ID  1942.9.297
An armored man on horseback hands a piece of emerald-green cloth down to the nearly nude man standing next to him in this slightly stylized, vertical painting. Both men have light skin, and they, along with the horse, nearly fill the composition. To our right, the bright white horse stands angled to our right with the front left hoof raised. It has a smoke-gray mane, and wears a black bridle. The man riding the horse has short, copper-blond hair and a long face with a pointed chin. He looks down at the ground with dark eyes under black, arched brows. He has a long, thin nose, and his small lips are closed and framed by the faint suggestion of a mustache. He wears a white ruff pleated into figure-eights over his high-necked armor, which is liberally outlined and decorated with gold against the pewter-colored plates. He grips the voluminous, green cape in one hand and holds a sword in the other, down by the leg we can see. The cleanshaven man next to him, to our left, looks off to our right in profile. He has close-cropped, dark hair and smooth skin. His lips are parted, and he tips his head slightly away from us. He holds the green cloth with the hand closer to the horse and gestures down with his other pointer finger, in front of his hip. A white cloth bandage is wrapped around one shin, and he rests his weight on the other leg. The horse and man stand on a curving spit of brown earth. A spring-green landscape dips down behind them, running low near the bottom edge of the painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the composition, and fog-gray and white clouds create thin screens across the topaz-blue sky. The loose brushstrokes are visible in some areas, especially in the landscape and clothing. The artist signed his name in Greek near the lower right corner.
El Greco, Saint Martin and the Beggar, 1597/1599, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.25

Saint Martin and the Beggar

El Greco · 1597/1599 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.25
Shown from the about the thighs up, a man, a woman holding a swaddled baby, and a satyr, which has a man’s torso and goat’s legs, sit and stand around a table in a deeply shadowed room, filling this horizontal painting. All the people have light skin and dark hair, and are lit dramatically from our left. To our left, the bare-chested satyr faces our right in profile as he leans toward the table, looking up at the woman. He wears a crown of leaves and has a dark goatee. Almost lost in shadow, a sable-brown horn juts up from his temple. Light falls across his bare shoulders, and his hands and neck are ruddy. Another ring of leaves encircles his waist over the silvery-gray fur of his goat’s legs. He holds his left hand, farther from us, in front of his chest with his open palm facing the couple to our right. His other hand rests at the top of a wooden staff behind his right hip, closer to us. The staff disappears behind a wood plank resting across at least one barrel, which presumably acts as the bench on which he sits on or hovers slightly over. The second man sits at the table to our right, his back mostly to us as he looks over his left shoulder, up toward the satyr, with his face in profile. One brow is cocked over the dark eye we can see, and he has a prominent nose and a mustache. He wears a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, white garment tied around the waist. He blows across a soup spoon held to his lips, his cheeks puffed. He leans on his other arm, which rests on the tabletop near a blue bowl. Across the table, behind the seated man, a woman looks back at the satyr from the corners of her eyes, her coral-red lips curled up in a smile. Her body faces our left and she tilts her head to her left, our right, as she turns her face down toward that shoulder. Her dark brown hair is pulled up and back, and she wears an olive-green wrap over a white shirt. The baby she holds leans away from her chest to twist and look back at the satyr as well. A few details eventually emerge from the deeply shadowed background, including a fourth person tucked into the lower left corner, who looks back over a shoulder at us or the group. Light rims the corner of a window cut from a stone wall, and a few ceramic dishes and cups line two shelves to our right behind the woman.
Johann Liss, The Satyr and the Peasant, possibly c. 1623/1626, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.39

The Satyr and the Peasant

Johann Liss · possibly c. 1623/1626 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.39
The image is of a ceramic plate featuring a bust of a person shown from the chest up in profile facing left. The person has wavy hair adorned with a headband. The plate has a decorative pattern of yellow scales against a blue background and additional floral and geometric motifs. The background is a creamy shade.
Deruta 16th Century, Large dish with scale border; in the center, an imperial Roman figure and the letter N crowned, c. 1510/1540, tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica), Widener Collection, 1942.9.320

Large dish with scale border; in the center, an imperial Roman figure and the letter N crowned

Deruta 16th Century · c. 1510/1540 · tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica) ·  Accession ID  1942.9.320

Bibliography

1940

  • Widener, P.A.B. Without Drums. New York, 1940.

1943

  • The New York Times (27 October 1943): 23:1 [obituary].

1973

  • Finley, David. A Standard of Excellence. Washington, 1973.

1974

  • Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors. Boston, 1974.

2002

  • Quodbach, Esmé. "'The last of the American Versailles': the Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 42-96.

2003

  • Minty, Nancy T. Dutch and Flemish Seventeeth-Century Art in America, 1800-1940: Collections, Connoisseurship and Perceptions. Ph.D. diss, New York University, 2003:172-194, 444-494