George John Spencer, 2nd earl Spencer

British, 1758 - 1834

Explore Selected Works

A woman with pale, smooth skin stands wearing a loosely draped, champagne-peach dress in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces us but she turns her head to look down and off to our right with brown eyes. She has dark brows, an upturned nose, and her carnation-red lips are closed in a slight smile. Her ash-brown hair is loosely pulled up so it sweeps back from her face, while thick curls cascade down her neck and over her shoulders. Her long sleeved, floor-length dress is tied at her waist with a sage-green sash. Gossamer-white fabric drapes around her upper arms, and she holds the long ends in both hands. Her right elbow, to our left, rests on the high base of columns that rise behind her and off the top edge of the canvas. A rust-red curtain drapes down from the top of the painting, over the columns. To our right, beyond the columns, the landscape opens to a view of trees beneath a blue sky with white puffy clouds.
Thomas Gainsborough, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, 1783, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.93

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Thomas Gainsborough · 1783 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.93

Jacob Matham, Abraham Casting Out Hagar, 1603, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012.92.561

Abraham Casting Out Hagar

Jacob Matham · 1603 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2012.92.561

Shown from the thighs up against a dark background, a man with light skin, wearing a black satin jerkin with puffed breeches, stands with his hand on the neck of a dog by his side in this vertical portrait painting. The man stands with his body angled to our right but looks at us from the corners of his dark eyes. His brows are subtly raised, and his cheeks are slightly sunken under high cheekbones. His red hair is cut short, and his red mustache and beard are trimmed. The high collar of his black jacket is lined with a white ruffle along his chin line. Light from our left glints off the long sleeves of his tight-fitting jacket, creating the impression that it is made of heavy silk. Two thick gold chains hang down his chest, and a sword hangs from a belt around his waist, the hilt on the hip farther from us. His pants puff out and gather on the mid-thigh over stockings. He hooks the thumb of his right hand, on our left, around his hip and he rests his other hand on the neck of the dog standing by his left side, to our right. The dark brown dog has a white stripe down its nose. It faces our left in profile but its brown eyes look toward us. On the collar, ornate metal bosses alternate with low spikes, set in a wide black band. A ring hangs from the front of the collar. Barely legible, the painting is signed and dated in the upper left corner with dark paint: “Antonius mor pingebat a. 1569.”
Antonis Mor, Portrait of a Gentleman, 1569, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.52

Portrait of a Gentleman

Antonis Mor · 1569 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.52

Guido Reni, The Head of Christ, c. 1623, black, red, and white chalks on gray-green laid paper, Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, 2006.11.19

The Head of Christ

Guido Reni · c. 1623 · black, red, and white chalks on gray-green laid paper ·  Accession ID  2006.11.19

Jacques Razet, Jan Pietersz Saenredam, Annunciation to the Shepherds, 1599, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012.92.595

Annunciation to the Shepherds

Jacques Razet, Jan Pietersz Saenredam · 1599 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2012.92.595

Jan Pietersz Saenredam, The Prophet Elijah with the Widow of Zarephath, 1604, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen, 2012.92.601

The Prophet Elijah with the Widow of Zarephath

Jan Pietersz Saenredam · 1604 · engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2012.92.601

A seated nude woman reaches for and embraces a partially clothed man as he begins to stride away in this horizontal painting. A winged child holds a dove near his face to our left, and two dogs stand to our right of the pair. The woman sits facing away from us, twisting to our right. Her knees are bent with one knee raised as she leans back on her seat and turns to wrap her arms around the man’s chest. Her flushed face looks up toward the man. She has pale skin, and her blond hair is braided and coiled on the back of her head. A sheer white cloth drapes from her left shoulder, along the left side of her body, and over that knee. Her seat is covered with an orchid-pink cloth. The man strides to our right with his shoulders angled in that direction. He turns his head to look at the woman under lowered lids. He has short, curly brown hair, and his pink lips are parted. He wears a steel-blue toga tied in place with a gold band over one shoulder. A horn is tied around his waist with a gold sash. He wears a shin-high, laced sandal on the leg we can see. The arm closer to the woman is held high, that hand gripping a tall staff. He holds the leashes of the two dogs with his other hand, by his side. A pink band is tied around that upper arm. One bronze-brown dog stands facing our right in profile, while the other, closer to us, has a white body and a brown head, which hangs down as it looks to our left. Both dogs have floppy ears, and their mouths are open with their pink tongues hanging out. In the shadows just beyond the woman’s back knee, the winged baby hunches his shoulders while holding the white dove to his cheek. The cherub has short, blond hair, rounded, flushed cheeks, and small white wings. The elbow closer to us rests on a ledge or tree branch. A tree grows up next to the cherub, reaching off the top edge of the painting. A hill rises to our right in the distance, and a rainbow arcs against a pale blue sky screened with parchment-white clouds. A bright white flash in the upper right corner illuminates the trees beneath it.
Titian, Italian 16th Century, Venus and Adonis, c. 1540s/c. 1560-1565, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.84

Venus and Adonis

Titian, Italian 16th Century · c. 1540s/c. 1560-1565 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.84

Fra Bartolommeo, One Angel Blowing a Trumpet, and Another Holding a Standard, c. 1500, pen and brown ink, squared in red chalk for transfer on laid paper; laid down, Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, 2006.11.5

One Angel Blowing a Trumpet, and Another Holding a Standard

Fra Bartolommeo · c. 1500 · pen and brown ink, squared in red chalk for transfer on laid paper; laid down ·  Accession ID  2006.11.5

Giulio Romano, Apollo and Daphne, pen and brown ink on green-blue laid paper, Joseph F. McCrindle Collection, 2009.70.129

Apollo and Daphne

Giulio Romano · · pen and brown ink on green-blue laid paper ·  Accession ID  2009.70.129

Bibliography

1965

  • Cooper, Douglas, ed. Great Family Collections. New York, 1965:197-240