George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd duke of Sutherland

British, 1786 - 1861

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Shown from the knees up, a light-skinned man wearing a loose, ink-black garment with a white collar leans back in a wooden chair in this vertical portrait painting. His body faces our left almost in profile, but he turns his head to look at us from the corners of his light hazel-brown eyes, the eyebrow closer to us slightly cocked. Crow’s feet line the corners of his hooded eyes. He is lit from our right so the side of his face to our left is in shadow. His slightly hollow cheeks are lined between his nose and mouth with wrinkles. His silvery-gray beard is trimmed close to his angled jawline and pointed chin. His gray hair is closely cropped hair under a velvety-black, three-pointed cap. The white collar is trimmed with stripes and a row of delicate dots along the edge. The man leans heavily against his left arm, closer to us, which is stretched along the arm of the chair to nearly span the width of the painting. That hand curls around the terminal of the chair, which is carved with a stylized flower in a disk. He wears a gold ring with a dark blue stone on the pinky of that hand. He marks the spot in a closed book with his other hand, and rests the book in the crook of the elbow draped along the arm of the chair. The book he holds has a sand-brown cover, and is about the size of a thick paperback novel. The crimson-red lining along the back of the chair, to our right, and the cushion on which the man sits is trimmed with rows of fringe of the same color. The background behind the man is deep, sable brown in the corners and lightens to tan around the man’s head.
Giovanni Battista Moroni, "Titian's Schoolmaster", c. 1575, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.45

"Titian's Schoolmaster"

Giovanni Battista Moroni · c. 1575 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.45

A smiling young child holds the latch of an open wooden door as she looks toward a woman to our right in this almost square painting. The woman and child both have pale skin and stand in a bedroom. To our left, the child is the same height as the door handle, and she faces us. Her blond, upswept hair is backlit, and light falls on her from windows to our left. She turns to look at the woman with dark eyes, a slight smile on her pink lips. She wears a garment with a mauve-gray bodice and sleeves, a sage-green apron over a honey-yellow, ankle-length skirt, and dark shoes. She holds the ring of the door latch with her right hand, to our left, and holds a ball by her side in her other hand. The room has white walls with thick wood beams above, wood molding around the door and window, and a clay-red tiled floor. On the wall to either side of the girl and about the same height as she is, white tiles painted with scenes in azure blue line the walls. Wooden chairs to either side of the door have lion-shaped finials and a diamond pattern on the cloth-covered backs. A landscape painting in a black frame hangs over the door, and a wood table covered with a red cloth, holding a ceramic jug, sits to our left, along the wall coming toward us. The rightmost third of the composition is spanned by a bed set within a ceiling-high, cabinet-like enclosure. The woman stands in front of the bed, her body facing our left in profile. A white kerchief covers her hair and is tied under her chin. She wears a red shirt with white at the chest and cuffs, which are rolled back. A marine-blue skirt falls to her ankles. She holds a brown cloth in front of her, and another cloth is draped over a chair. A gleaming, squat, brown jug sits on floor nearby. A forest-green curtain lines the squared opening to the bed, and another green curtain is pulled to one side of a window next to the open door. Through the door and window, we see a second door across a shallow entryway, which leads outside. Both halves of the outer, Dutch door are open, though the top half swings in a little more than the bottom half. The space beyond has a fence or trellis, green plants, and the edge of a red roof.
Pieter de Hooch, The Bedroom, 1658/1660, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.33

The Bedroom

Pieter de Hooch · 1658/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.33

A barefoot man wearing tattered clothing, with his hands clasped at his chest, kneels at the feet of an old, bearded man in this almost square painting. The pair is flanked by five people on our right and a man, boy, and calf on our left. All the people have pale skin. The kneeling man faces our right in profile and tilts his head up to look at the old man who embraces him. The younger man has shaggy, dark brown hair and a heavy five o'clock shadow. A small white dog jumps at his dirty, bare feet. The old man has a long gray beard and wears a black skullcap over gray hair. His voluminous dusty rose-pink cloak drapes over a teal-blue robe. To our right of the pair are a child, a woman, and three men. Some look at the embracing men while the others look at each other. At the front of that grouping, two men have brown hair and wispy mustaches. One wears a golden-yellow tunic and holds a silver tray piled with a shimmering sky-blue and pale pink garment, a bright white shirt, and a pair of sandals. Just beyond him and looking into his face, the second man wears gray with a dark green cloak draped over one shoulder. He holds up a gold ring with a ruby-red stone. To our left of the embracing men, a smiling blond boy leads the calf into the scene. Just beyond him is a thin, muscular man carrying an ax over one shoulder as he gazes down at the boy. The scene is set in a courtyard with walls that extend back on either side. Billowing putty-gray and white clouds fill the background.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667/1670, oil on canvas, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1948.12.1

The Return of the Prodigal Son

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo · 1667/1670 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1948.12.1

We look up at two women, two young boys, and a man, all with pale skin, sitting together on a wide landing, with stairs leading up to stone buildings behind the group and a patch of vivid blue sky in the upper right corner of this horizontal painting. At the center, a woman, Mary, sits holding a nearly nude child propped on one knee. Her body is angled to our right but she turns her head to look off into the distance to our left with large, dark eyes under faint brows. Her strawberry-blond hair is pulled back under a white veil that falls down the back of her neck and across her chest. Her smooth cheeks are lightly flushed in her round face. She has a straight nose and her pink, bow lips are closed. She wears a coral-red dress under a long, azure-blue robe that wraps around her waist and covers her legs. The sandaled toes of one foot peek from under the hems, and her other foot rests up on a gold-colored, rounded urn. Mary holds one child on her lap, and the second child sits by her right side, to our left. Both toddlers have blond, curly hair, dark eyes, rounded faces, and slightly pudgy bodies. Swaths of pale gray drapery mostly cover the genitals of both. The child on her lap half-sits, half-stands on the knee propped up on the urn. She supports his belly with one hand, the other wraps around his bottom. He leans forward, toward the second child, who faces him and holds up a yellow and blush-red fruit. Behind him, to our left, an older woman sits leaning forward and facing Mary in profile. Her wrinkled face is mostly lost in shadow, and she has a hooked nose and her forehead is lined, as if her eyebrows are raised. A white veil is wrapped around her head and drapes over the shoulders of her long, canary-yellow dress. One foot is crossed behind the other ankle, and the toes of both peep out from under her dress. To our right of Mary, a bearded man, Joseph, wears an eggplant-purple robe and sits almost entirely in shadow, facing our right in profile. The leg closer to us is extended and his foot stretches out of the shadow. He has short, curly brown hair and a long gray beard. He holds a carpenter’s compass to a panel in front of him. Closest to us, a step down runs along the bottom edge of the painting. On that step, a basket with leaves and yellow and peach-colored fruit sits in front of the standing child. Near Mary’s feet is a bronze-colored urn and a shiny gold box on raised feet. Behind the older woman to our left, water trickles from a round-bellied fountain on a pedestal in front of an orange tree. One building with round columns rises behind the tree. Behind Joseph, a long stick rests against the post of a short flight of four steps, which leads to another landing. The portico of a second temple-like building with squared columns and leafy capitals rises over Mary, presumably from the upper landing. A bright, topaz-blue sky with cream-white and steel-gray clouds fills the upper right corner of the composition.
Anonymous Artist, The Holy Family on the Steps, 1648, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.49

The Holy Family on the Steps

Anonymous Artist · 1648 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.49

Bibliography

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 2:57-73.