Provenance

William R. Timken

American, 1866 - 1949

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Close to us, a woman and a winged, child-like putto float on clouds above a clean-shaven young man in a forest setting in this horizontal painting. All three people have smooth, pale skin, rosy cheeks, and ash-blond hair. The man reclines with his torso propped so his feet extend along the rocky ground to our left. He rests his head in his right hand, farther from us, with that elbow resting on a rock. We look up onto the underside of his chin and delicate features. A scarlet-red robe falls from his shoulders and across his hips. One knee is propped up, and that foot is tucked behind his other ankle. His muscular torso, arms, and legs are bare. His left hand, closer to us, rests by his side and loosely holds a staff. Three tan-colored sheep with long faces lie or stand behind the man, in the lower right corner of the painting. A light gray hound dog with floppy ears sleeps with its drooping muzzle resting on its paws in the shadows at the man’s feet. The woman floats just above the man, reclining on a fog-gray cloud with her feet angled toward the man’s torso. Her curls are held back by a topaz-blue ribbon, and she looks down at the man, a faint smile on her lips. A loose white garment partially covered by a blue robe falls from her shoulders, leaving one breast and one leg bare. She reaches outward with her left hand, palm out, and the other hand rests down on the cloud alongside her. A sharply pointed, luminous crescent moon curves up to each side behind the cloud. The chubby, nude, baby-like putto nestles on his belly in a cloud between the man and woman. He has short, tousled hair, stubby wings, and his skin is flushed pink. An arrow held in one hand points toward the man, and the putto rests his other hand in a bunch of pink roses. Plants and flowers grow in patches on the ground around the man. The sky above is framed with steel-gray clouds against pale blue.
Jean Honoré Fragonard, Diana and Endymion, c. 1753/1756, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.2

Diana and Endymion

Jean Honoré Fragonard · c. 1753/1756 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.2

A man and woman are surrounded by six pudgy children, some with wings, against a deep landscape in this square painting. At the center of the composition, the man, Bacchus, sits astride a wine barrel, which is about half his height. Bacchus has tanned, peachy skin, and is nude except for a claret-purple cloth draped across his groin. He wears a crown of grapevines with gold and purple fruit and palm-sized leaves. A staff topped with grapevines leans across one splayed leg, and he holds a shallow bowl in his left hand, to our right. With his other hand, he lifts a delicate gold circlet lined with tiny, bright stars over the woman, Ariadne. He smiles down at her as she reclines next to the barrel, to our left. Ariadne has ash-white, pale skin with flushed cheeks. She looks away from Bacchus, up and to our left, with large brown eyes and her full lips closed. She leans on one elbow near the barrel so her legs extend to our left. A few stems of wheat are tucked into her blond hair. She is nude except for a gold-colored cloth over her groin and a cameo on a gold band around her upper arm. She holds flowers and more wheat in the crook of her elbow, which rests near a tall urn, and touches a grapevine and bunch of grapes that drape over the urn with the other hand. Two putto, one with wings visible, hover behind her right shoulder, to our left. Another child-like putto drinks wine from a rope-wrapped bottle behind Bacchus’s barrel, to our right. A putto holds a round tray and another stands astride a cheetah, who lies in front of the barrel. This final putto holds up a vine with golden grapes and more grapevines are next to the tray. We are separated from the scene by painted architectural features meant to resemble carved white stone. The cheetah’s backside dips over a step that parallels the bottom edge of the canvas. Imaginary creatures in the lower corners have the bodies of large cats, chests with women’s breasts, long necks, curling ears, and long-snouted dog’s faces. Tall, brown, leaf-like forms rising along each side of the painting are wrapped with gold ribbons. Stone molding curls into the scene from the upper corners like parentheses, and the innermost scrolling ends meet at the top center. One more putto, also with wings, leans against the volute to our left, holding up flowers with both hands. Most of the putti have pale or rosy skin and dark blond hair, except for the one standing over the cheetah, who has brown skin and dark brown hair. Tucked into the scene in the lower left, just past the imaginary creature there, another pale-skinned person with a long nose, pointed chin, and the suggestion of jowls is shown from the waist up, looking toward Ariadne. This person has short dark hair and wears a black garment and a square hat in the shape of a white stone castle. A dark green hill rises behind this person, and a satyr, a man with goat’s legs and horns, walks alongside a donkey on which another pale-skinned child rides. There are white buildings with brown roofs in the distance in front of rocky, powder-blue mountains along the horizon. Puffy white clouds tower against the ice-blue sky above.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Bacchus and Ariadne, c. 1743/1745, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.36

Bacchus and Ariadne

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · c. 1743/1745 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.36

The head and chest of a man with pale pink skin, a honey-blond beard, and curly, mahogany-brown hair around a receding hairline fills this vertical portrait painting. His body and head are tipped to our left and he looks at or toward us with olive-green eyes. He has a long, pointed nose with lines around the nostrils leading down to his sweeping mustache. His soft beard below is trimmed to a point. His full, salmon-pink lips are closed. Faint sage green shades the inner corners of his eyes and the dips at his temples, beneath a shiny, balding head. His brown locks float around his face as if lifted by a breeze. His shoulders are enveloped by a chocolate-brown cloak, probably fur, and a swipe of vivid white paint at the back of his neck suggests a high, white collar. The background is mottled with rust-red, copper, and gold. The portrait is loosely painted in some areas, especially the fur cloak and background.
Anonymous Artist, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1620, oil on panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.33

Peter Paul Rubens

Anonymous Artist · c. 1620 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.33

A light-skinned man with dark hair and a russet-orange beard stands wearing a long, voluminous, fur-lined coat next to a small dog near the corner of a room in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right but he turns his head to look at us with light brown eyes under faint, ginger brows. He has a straight nose, his cheeks are lightly flushed, and his light peach lips are closed. His ginger beard and mustache are closely trimmed. His wavy, brown hair reaches his ears, and short bangs skim across the top of his forehead. His knee-length, taupe-brown tunic is tied at the waist and has a high neck that encircles layers of black and white collars underneath. The floor-length, flint-gray coat, worn over the tunic, has puffed sleeves that gather at the elbows, and is lined with a broad band of black fur around the neck and down the front. With his right hand, to our left, he grips the fur lining with his index finger extended. His other hand is held in front of his waist with the palm facing up and fingers loosely curled. He wears black pants or stockings over black shoes. The small, long-haired dog sitting to our right near the man’s feet has caramel-brown spots along its back, around its eyes, and over its furry ears. It looks at us with dark eyes, and its mouth curves up. It comes about halfway up the man’s shin and wears a red collar with silver bells. The floor is patterned with fern-green squares in a white grid. The wall behind the man is pale blue. Marble molding along the top is white veined with gray, and a red curtain is bunched up in the upper right corner of the painting, presumably tied against the wall there.
Giovanni Battista Moroni, Gian Federico Madruzzo, c. 1560, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.27

Gian Federico Madruzzo

Giovanni Battista Moroni · c. 1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.27

Two pale-skinned women sit together surrounded by five sheep and a dog in a lush forest in this vertical painting. The woman to our right sits slightly above the other, with her arm draped around the shoulders of her companion. The woman to our right wears a low-cut, rose-pink dress with a full skirt and voluminous, gossamer sleeves. Blond curls are pulled back behind a headband, which is adorned over one ear with three large, pink flowers and smaller yellow and blue flowers. She tips her head to our right as she gazes down to her left at her friend. She has blue eyes, flushed cheeks, a delicate nose, and her grapefruit-pink lips curl in a gentle smile. She crosses one knee over the other and leans toward the other woman. Tucked into her side, the second woman looks up at the first in profile facing our right. Her low-cut, lavender-purple dress has a gold shimmer that suggests silk. Her ash-brown curls are pulled back and decorated with small sea-blue flowers. One toe peeks out from her long skirt, and both women are barefoot. The woman in purple holds a white dove on her friend’s lap, and the woman in pink holds a small envelope closed with a shell-pink seal next to the bird. The dove’s wings are slightly outspread, and a blue ribbon is tied around its neck. Just behind the pair, a towering tree with a silvery-gray trunk grows up and off the top edge of the painting. It angles to our left, and green branches hang down into the picture. To our right of the tree, a rectangular sand-brown stone structure is topped with a male lion carved from the same stone, near the upper right corner. The ground beneath the women is covered with moss-green growth and the space around them filled with verdant bushes and plants. A single, cream-colored sheep stands to our right, facing the women, next to a basket of flowers near the lower right corner. Four more sheep stand and lie together beyond the women to our left, while a black-bodied hound with a white muzzle sits watching the women. A pile of broken branches, perhaps forming a fence, lies behind the sheep. Grassy hills and trees become hazy in the distance beyond, and the sky above is slate blue with a few white and pale pink clouds. The upper and lower right corners and the lower left corner are deep in shade. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed the stone in the shadow just below the lion, “f. Boucher 1750.”
François Boucher, The Love Letter, 1750, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.3

The Love Letter

François Boucher · 1750 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.3

A pale-skinned, balding man with a fringe of white hair and a long, wispy gray beard kneels with his fingers intertwined in prayer in a shadowy grotto-like space in this vertical painting. He faces our right in profile, and his eyes look up at a crucifix propped against several woven baskets leaning against a moss-covered, gnarled tree. His hands rest on the open pages of a large book at the base of the crucifix. He wears a dark tawny-brown robe with a voluminous hood, and a string of thick rosary beads hanging from his waist ends with a tiny skull and a cross. A brick archway frames him, and another archway is seen through the opening. An unlit lantern hangs from the tree over the crucifix. The book, baskets, and crucifix along with a skull and hourglass sit on a rock covered by a cloth. An overturned pottery jug, a water jug, and a horse’s skull rest among a tall thistle plant and grass at the foot of the rock, in the lower right corner of the panel.
Gerrit Dou, The Hermit, 1670, oil on oak panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.8

The Hermit

Gerrit Dou · 1670 · oil on oak panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.8

This is a painting of a Gothic-style cathedral interior. The building features tall, cream-colored arches and vaulted, ribbed ceilings. There are framed artworks above wooden pulpits with lit candles on them, and dark gray statues high on the walls. A light blue sky is visible through tall windows, and the floor is a checkered white-and-black pattern, occasionally disrupted by rectangles of gray and white. Men, women, and children dressed in vibrant clothing walk across the floor or kneel by altars.
Peeter Neeffs the Elder, Antwerp Cathedral, c. 1650/1655, oil on copper, Timken Collection, 1960.6.29

Antwerp Cathedral

Peeter Neeffs the Elder · c. 1650/1655 · oil on copper ·  Accession ID  1960.6.29

Shown from the waist up, an elderly man with pale, peachy skin, wavy, silvery-gray hair, and a long beard stands facing our right, almost filling this vertical painting. He wears a butterscotch-gold robe and clutches two large skeleton keys the length of his forearm in his right hand while his other fist rests at his waist. One key is iron gray and the other is copper colored. The man’s balding, high forehead slopes down to thick black brows arching over deep-set, hazel eyes that gaze upward. He has a long nose, pale pink mouth, and hollows under his high cheekbones. He is brightly lit from the upper left against an ink-black background. The strong light creates shadows in the folds of his garment and on his craggy features.
Anonymous Artist, Saint Peter, c. 1616/1618, oil on panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.32

Saint Peter

Anonymous Artist · c. 1616/1618 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.32

Three apples and two pears sit next to a knife and a luminous, white mug on a tan, stone surface before a muted, olive-green background in this horizontal still life painting. The objects and background are painted with blended strokes, giving the painting a soft, glowing appearance. At the center of the ledge or table, the apples are dappled with candy red and pale yellow. Two golden and moss-green pears are to our left, one upright and the other lying with its stem coming toward us. The fruit is painted with white highlights from a light source to our left. The cream-white mug sits next to the apples to our right. The mug has straight sides, a low band near the top and bottom, and the handle curves out to our right. Between the apples and mug, the black handle of a knife angles to our right, off the edge of the table. Shadows are painted in brick red on the surface of the table, which extends off both sides of the canvas. There is a vertical seam in the table under the upright pear.
Jean Siméon Chardin, Still Life with a White Mug, c. 1764, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.6

Still Life with a White Mug

Jean Siméon Chardin · c. 1764 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.9.6

The image shows a person standing upright, dressed in ornate clergy robes with a cape draped over one shoulder. They hold a gridiron in their right hand and a book in their left hand. The individual has a serene expression and is framed by a halo. The background is textured gold and dark green, enclosed by an ornate frame with gold accents.
Portuguese 15th Century, St. Lawrence, c. 1475/1500, oil on panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.30.4

St. Lawrence

Portuguese 15th Century · c. 1475/1500 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.30.4

Bibliography

1949

  • "W.R. Timken, Made Roller Bearings." The New York Times. 13 June 1949: 19 [obituary]