Provenance

Galerie Georges Petit

Galerie Georges Petit
Les Galeries Georges Petit

French, est. 1846 - closed 1933

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This painting shows a young woman lying on her stomach on a brown, rocky surface near the water's edge, looking towards the sea. The woman's bare feet are towards the bottom left corner of the painting, while her head is in the center, resting on her hand. She faces the right, and we see her back and side. She wears a pale green shirt with blue sleeves, a brown skirt, and a white cloth on her head. There is a red cloth on the ground next to her, as well as a pointed wooden stick that appears to be covered in white strips of cloth or feathers. The ground below her on the right is a tan, sandy color, and behind her is the sea, which is painted in vibrant turquoise and green shades, with white lines capping small waves. The sky is light blue with puffy white clouds, and distant landforms are visible in light gray across the water.
Jules Breton, The Cliff (La Falaise), 1874, oil on canvas, Gift of Eric, Nicole, Elijah, Elodie and Luke Weider, 2024.146.1

The Cliff (La Falaise)

Jules Breton · 1874 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2024.146.1

Painted in mostly in jewel tones of topaz and aquamarine blue, and sage, spring, and pine green, a meadow is enclosed by a wooden fence, against a landscape of gently rolling hills under a vibrant sky in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes. Touches of white, cotton candy-pink, ruby-red, and azure-blue paint in the long grasses close to us could be wildflowers. A few swipes of straw yellow and pale and lapis blue could represent two people, standing and kneeling, in the field close to the fence. The rickety fence starts at the right edge of the canvas and extends into the distance, angling away from us to our left. Rolling hills beyond are a patchwork of emerald green and caramel brown, and are dotted with trees with full, dark green canopies. One brown building sits on the crest of a hill to our right of center. The horizon comes about halfway up this picture, and the turquoise-colored sky is dotted with white puffs of clouds. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “Sisley 75.”
Alfred Sisley, Meadow, 1875, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.83

Meadow

Alfred Sisley · 1875 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.83

A small complex of white buildings with red-tile roofs are engulfed in a patchwork of lush, green farm fields over rolling hills in this nearly square painting. The sun-drenched scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in shades of spring, clover, and pine green, with touches of caramel and sand brown. The horizon comes about three-quarters of the way up the composition, and white clouds float against the pale blue sky above. Small in scale, a few people walk along pathways between fields and a few work among the crops. The cluster of buildings is situated along the base of a hill that rises in the distance, about halfway up the painting. A man wearing a straw hat, a white shirt, and denim-blue overalls walks away from us, perhaps carrying a long-handled tool in the lower left corner of the painting. Another person, perhaps a woman wearing a dress and white cap, stands at a fence along the path, near the man. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower right corner: “C.Pissarro.68.”
Camille Pissarro, Landscape at Les Pâtis, Pontoise, 1868, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Rockefeller, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.101.1

Landscape at Les Pâtis, Pontoise

Camille Pissarro · 1868 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1991.101.1

This painting depicts a man seated on an ornate chair, looking to the right. He has fair skin, grey curly hair, and is wearing a brown coat with gold trim and gray fur over a frilly white shirt. He is holding a large book open with his left hand, and his right hand rests on a stack of books. In the background, there is a blue drapery that partially obscures shelves with scientific equipment and glass jars. There is a dark gray column on the left.
Jean-Marc Nattier, Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, 1745, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.30

Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson

Jean-Marc Nattier · 1745 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.30

An older girl and a younger child, both with pale skin, bend toward each other as they look at a book spread open on a wooden cupboard in this nearly square painting. Shown from the hips up to our right, the girl leans over the cupboard with her body facing our left in profile. She looks at the child peering over the low ledge at the back of the cupboard with her head tilted slightly in that direction. The older girl has a straight, delicate nose, her smooth cheeks are flushed, and her rosy-red lips are pursed. Her brown hair is tucked under a bright white, ruffled cap encircled with a gold and cranberry-red ribbon. The long sleeves of the muted sapphire-blue dress seem to have been rolled back along the forearms to reveal cascading, white cuffs. A translucent white neckerchief, like a short, full scarf, is tucked into an ivory-white apron that also covers the flaring skirt. With both hands on the open book, she points to one page with a metal pointer like a knitting needle. Facing us, the smaller child looks at the book from behind the wood cupboard, eyes downcast, resting one forearm on the surface and pointing to a detail in the book. The child has delicate brows, a short, wide nose, and full raspberry-red lips are closed. The padded cap the child wears covers the ears and is loosely painted with a pattern of honey brown, silvery white, and slate blue. The nutmeg-brown sleeves are pushed back along the forearm and there are white cuffs or sleeves beneath. The cupboard has two diamond-shaped, iron-gray metal pulls in front. Light illuminating the pair from our left creates a greenish glow on the tawny-brown background behind them.
Jean Siméon Chardin, The Little Schoolmistress, after 1740, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.91

The Little Schoolmistress

Jean Siméon Chardin · after 1740 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.91

Shown from the lap up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a long gown and wide-brimmed hat sits in front of a low stone wall in this vertical portrait painting. The woman takes up the lower right quadrant of the composition. Her body faces our left, and she looks off in that direction so we see her in profile. She has large eyes, a delicate nose, round, flushed cheeks, and a pointed chin. Her blond hair is pulled back under a black covering at the back of her head. The underside of her hat brim is steel gray, and a carnation-pink feather droops over one side. The rounded, straw-yellow crown is just visible above the grim. A gold and pearl earring dangles from the ear we see, and a smoke-gray, translucent cloth is tied around her shoulders. The bodice of her dress is coral red on the upper chest and patterned with gold stripes and leaves against brown on the torso and elbow-length sleeves. The white garment she wears underneath is gathered in puffs just under the elbows, beyond the end of the brown sleeves. Her apricot-orange skirt has a sheen, suggesting satin, and a translucent white apron is tied around the waist. She holds a hoop, about the diameter of a human head, in both hands. She adds colorful flowers to the hoop and more blossoms lie in her lap. Her far elbow rests on the stone wall that spans the bottom third of the painting. The front face of the wall is carved in low relief with a sunflower, roses, and other flowers. A crack runs down through the top of the wall and curves toward the woman. A stone fountain rises from the ledge to our left. A tall base is topped by a stylized fish with water trickling from its open mouth. Also part of the carved fountain, the head of a small child standing astride the fish is cut off by the top edge of the panel. Shadowy trees nearly fill the space beyond the wall, but a clearing is visible through a small gap near the woman’s face. There, a man sitting on the grass wraps his arms around the woman sitting next to him. A dome, towers, and rooflines are nickel-gray in the deep distance beyond. The artist signed the work as if he had carved the wall near the woman to read, “G. Schalcken.”
Godefridus Schalcken, Woman Weaving a Crown of Flowers, c. 1675/1680, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2005.26.1

Woman Weaving a Crown of Flowers

Godefridus Schalcken · c. 1675/1680 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2005.26.1

Six men on horseback and wearing jockeys’ uniforms line up on a grassy field in front of us in this loosely painted horizontal scene. The jockeys and horses’ features are especially freely painted so much of the detail is indistinct. The horses are all chestnut brown except for two at the middle, which are dark brown. One horse, second from our right, rears up on its hind legs, and one to our left nuzzles its neighbor. The riders all wear brimmed caps or helmets, white pants, and knee-high black boots. Their caps and high-necked shirts are painted in shades of goldenrod yellow, aquamarine blue, white, red, or peach. Their faces and hands are peach-colored or light brown. Some of the horses and the rider’s clothing are outlined in black. One of the riders is set a little farther back than the others. A black silhouette in the near distance to our right suggests a man wearing a suit and tall top hat. Swipes of black, brown, sky blue, and white create the impression of a crowd across from us, gathered on the far side of the grassy area. Light green fields continue back to a line of shamrock-green trees at the foot of gently sloping hills. White clouds screen the ice-blue sky above, which takes up the top quarter of the painting. The paint seems thinly applied in many areas, especially the horses and the grassy fields, so the weave of the canvas is visible under strokes of green and brown. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Degas.”
Edgar Degas, The Riders, c. 1885, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.7

The Riders

Edgar Degas · c. 1885 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.7

An older man, a young man, and a dog stand on a verandah that opens onto a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The men are pale skinned and shown from the knees up. The older man stands on the left with his head turned to look off in that direction. Long, silver-gray hair frames his flushed face. Bushy brows curve over his dark gray eyes, and deep creases line his long nose. His plump pink lips are closed between a thin white mustache above and a dot of a beard below. A long white collar hangs down the chest of his lead-gray jacket. His right sleeve, on our left, is turned back to show the cuff of a puffy-sleeved white shirt underneath. That hand holds gleaming velvet-black fabric, which is gathered at his waist and falls to his knees. His other hand rests on the shoulder of the young man to our right. That man’s oval face is framed by thick, shoulder-length, curly, chestnut-brown hair. He gazes at us with amber eyes under slender brows. He has flushed cheeks, a narrow nose, and coral-red lips are slightly parted. A bright orange ribbon tied under a white brocaded ascot around his neck is wider than his face. His russet-brown jacket is unbuttoned to show an embroidered gold and azure-blue vest underneath. A wide pink sash is fastened around his left elbow, on our right, and billowing white sleeves extend from the shorter sleeves of the jacket. He holds his right hand, to our left, palm up with his index finger extended toward the dog in front of him, who has turned to look up. Shown from the back, the dog has long, glossy, coffee-brown fur with some white streaks. The young man’s other hand rests on a chipped stone balustrade next to him. The artist signed and dated the work as if he had carved the front face of the balustrade to read, “N. De Largillierre F. 1685.” Two stone columns rise to either side of the young man and give way to a tree-filled landscape under a muted blue sky above.
Nicolas de Largillierre, Portrait of a Young Man and His Tutor, 1685, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.26

Portrait of a Young Man and His Tutor

Nicolas de Largillierre · 1685 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.26

This painting shows a man depicted from two angles; on the left, he faces us, while on the right, his back is to us. In both views he wears the same clothes and is in the same position. The man has dark brown skin and a black mustache, with short black hair covered by a tilted red hat. He wears a long, brown, long-sleeved garment with a red section at his chest, a white sash around his waist, and a tan sash draped over his shoulders and across his chest. Under the garment he has striped gray pants and red sandals on his feet, the toes curved upwards. The man stands with one hand on his hip and the other hand placed on an indistinct object, possibly a chair. The background is painted in blurred shades of brown and gray.
Eugène Delacroix, Two Studies of a Standing Indian from Calcutta, c. 1823/1824, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2006.128.18

Two Studies of a Standing Indian from Calcutta

Eugène Delacroix · c. 1823/1824 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2006.128.18

We look across a lush landscape of olive-green forests lining a glimmering, silvery-blue lake with hills in the deep distance under a pale blue sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with some visible and some blended brushstrokes to give it a hazy, soft appearance. A man wearing a red cap and a white shirt sits in a long, low, narrow boat with a pointed bow in the grasses along the shore, near the bottom center of the composition. Gnarled tree trunks, one to each side, frame the view beyond. Towering, leafy trees nearly fill the right half of the painting. To our left, the still surface of the lake leads back to a city painted almost in silhouette with flint blue, which is reflected in the surface of the water. Hills and mountains are painted in bands of lightening blue as they recede into the deep distance to our left. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition, and the pale sky above is veiled with soft white clouds. The painting is signed in orange letters in the lower left corner, “COROT,” and dated in the lower right, “JANVIER 1866.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Moored Boatman: Souvenir of an Italian Lake, 1861, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection, 1926), 2015.19.25

The Moored Boatman: Souvenir of an Italian Lake

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · 1861 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.25

Bibliography

1921

  • Lugt, Frits. Les Marques de Collections de Dessins et D'Estampes. Amsterdam, 1921: 369. (February 1973): 107.

1989

  • Musée du Louvre. Les Donateurs du Louvre. Paris, 1989: 290.