Frederick Howard, 5th earl of Carlisle

British, 1748 - 1825

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We look slightly down onto a port-side town along a canal, with a church across the water from us in this horizontal landscape painting. A bright blue sky with billowing white, pink, and gray clouds fills the top two-thirds of the painting. Below, a three-masted ship with all but one sail furled is surrounded by a couple dozen black long, low boats, gondolas, and one or two other sailboats. People stand and walk mostly in pairs and trios along the stone walkway under us, which extends into the distance to our right. The women all wear long dresses and most of the men wear suits with knee-length jackets with tails or capes, and hats. The clothing is painted in shades of brick and terracotta red, pine green, royal blue, and gray. The walkway is interrupted by two low walls that partition off an area near us. The angled roofs of stalls line the walkway in the farther distance before it is again interrupted, this time by a two-story, cream-colored building. The walkway continues as a narrower path under an arched arcade on the lower level of that building, alongside the water. On the far side of the canal, to our left and in the distance, a cluster of ivory-white buildings includes a structure with two stone-blue domes. More buildings extend into the deep distance to our left.
Canaletto, Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice, 1742/1744, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton, 1945.15.4

Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice

Canaletto · 1742/1744 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.15.4

A young woman sleeps with her cheek resting on the back of one hand next to a woman holding a nude baby and two winged angels in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin and they nearly fill the composition. The sleeping woman, Saint Catherine, rests her elbow on a stone table covered by a golden yellow cloth, which also wraps around her shoulders. Her knees are angled to our right and her face tips onto her hand to our left. Her curly, light brown hair is pulled back. She has delicately arching eyebrows, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her pale, olive-green, floor-length dress is tied at the waist with a mauve-purple sash. She wears a gold ring with a gray stone on the third finger of her left hand, which rests in her lap. To our right, the second woman, Mary, leans over Saint Catherine. Mary’s head is angled to our left, toward the sleeping saint, and she looks to our right, down past the baby. Mary’s complexion is has a faint gray cast, and her brown hair is covered by a white cloth, which is surrounded by a halo of light. A dark garment covers her shoulders over a scarlet-red dress. The baby sits on Mary’s lap with his body facing our left, toward Saint Catherine. He leans our way and looks at us with dark eyes. Light catches his brown curls and he has chubby cheeks, arms, and legs. Along the bottom edge of the canvas, a puff of gray cloud near the lower right corner seems to support Mary’s feet. A curving, charoal-gray spike in the lower left corner of the painting is partially covered by the yellow drapery. Behind Saint Catherine and over her head, next to Mary, are two winged angels with dark blond, curly hair. The angel closer to us rests one hand on the pine-green pillow behind Saint Catherine’s head and turns to look past Mary in profile, lips parted. The angel behind looks down with hands together in prayer. Light falls across the scene from our right. The upper right corner behind Mary is filled with brick-red clouds that, upon closer examination, are filled with faces looking onto the scene.
Lodovico Carracci, The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1593, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.59

The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Lodovico Carracci · c. 1593 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.59

Dozens of men with several women and a few children gather in pairs or small groups across a sun-drenched plaza in front of a domed church next to a long, pale pink building in this horizontal painting. The people’s faces and hands we can see have pale, peachy skin. The men wear hats and shin-length capes or jackets over stockings in tones of charcoal gray, olive green, butterscotch yellow, black, and brown. The women wear black capes covering their heads and long, full skirts. The ash-brown plaza has two zones where geometric patterns are picked out in a lighter, oatmeal brown. Three coral-red flagpoles are spaced along the center of the plaza parallel to the two buildings. Each flagpole rests on an olive-green base about a third of the height of the pole. Tables under open umbrellas clustered around the outer two flagpoles display piles of cloth, and a few people gather around the wares. The domed building extends into the scene from the left edge of the painting, and reaches about a third of the way across as it angles away from us. It has a central portal with nested arches, flanked to each side by a pair of slightly smaller, arched portals. Scenes against gold backgrounds appear in the archway of each of the five doors. There is a second level of arches above. The smaller arches to either side are decorated with more scenes of people against gold backgrounds. Four gold horses stand atop the central, lower arch, each with one front and one back hoof raised. The arch behind them is dim, the back side of a stained-glass window. The stone of the arches and front of the building are light brown. The upper arches are lined with pale, slate-gray spires and curling tracery. The three-story pink building sits close by to our right, extending into the distance on the same angle as the church, and as tall as its neighbor. The lowest level is a series of open, pointed arches. The second level is also a row of arches, but more closely spaced. People walk and stand under both covered walkways. The top half of the building has a carnation-pink façade with seven windows evenly spaced across its width. The central window is surrounded by carved stone ornament. Along the right edge of the painting and closer to us than the large buildings is the corner of a two-story building. The lower level is in shadow under a sloping awning, creating a merchant’s stall, and the second level has a rounded, arched window. One person stands at the front corner of the roof and looks down into the square. In the narrow gap between the row of buildings to our left and the smaller structure to our right is a winged lion atop a tall column. Beyond that is sparkling blue water with several masted ships and long, narrow gondolas. The sky above has thin white clouds against a pale blue sky. The artist signed the lower left, “A.C.F.”
Canaletto, The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice, 1742/1744, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton, 1945.15.3

The Square of Saint Mark's, Venice

Canaletto · 1742/1744 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.15.3

Warm sunlight bathes a scene with a herd of five golden tan, ivory, or chocolate-brown cows lying or standing on a low hill near four people on foot and on horseback in this horizontal landscape painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The horizon line is about a quarter of the way up the composition and is lined in the deep distance with spires rising over trees. Close to us and at the center of the composition, two cows look off to our left in profile; one is caramel brown and lies on the ground in front of a standing, gray cow. The three remaining cows cluster to our right and look off that side of the painting. One of two standing cows is ivory and the other is brown with a white face. The fifth cow lies down and is the same pale brown color of the other reclining cow. Two men riding horses converse with two people on foot to our right of and slightly behind the cows. The person closest to us rides a black horse and faces away from us. He wears a plumed hat and a red cape draped over a blue-gray coat, and he carries a long, thin rod. He looks toward the two people on foot farther back behind the cows. One standing person wears a gray coat, a floppy black, plumed hat, and holds a long staff in one hand and points to our right with the other. The other standing person wears a straw hat over blond hair and wears a blue garment over a white shirt. Near the right edge of the painting, the other horseman wears a gray coat and a brown cap over brown hair. He rides a silvery gray horse and looks back over his shoulder toward the interaction or herd. Birds fly in the distance in the watery blue sky below a bank of dove-gray clouds.
Aelbert Cuyp, Landscape with Herdsmen, mid-1650s, oil on panel, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.707

Landscape with Herdsmen

Aelbert Cuyp · mid-1650s · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2014.79.707

A young girl with dark hair and pale skin, wearing a long white dress, kneels on the ground in a hilly, tree-lined landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The girl sits close to us, her body slightly angled to our left as she looks toward and reaches for a rose bush potted in a tall, brown urn along the left edge of the painting. She has pale gray eyes under faint brows and a delicate, pointed nose. Her round cheeks are flushed, and her pink bow lips are closed. Her chestnut-brown hair curls at the neck of her clothing, and bangs cover her forehead under a lacy white bonnet. Light glistens off her lace-edged black cape, which is tied at her throat. The full skirt of her white dress pillows like a cloud on the ground around her legs, and she has a wide, teal-blue sash around her waist. With her right arm, farther from us, she reaches out to touch a pink blossom with a gloved hand. The fingers of the butter-yellow gloves have been folded back. Her other hand rests with exposed fingers in a loose fist in near her knee. Behind her, gently rolling hills are dotted with leafy green trees silhouetted against a stretch of white sky just above the low horizon. Painted in smoky gray, ivory white, and pale, blush pink, the thin clouds against the topaz-blue sky fills the upper two-thirds of the picture. The painting is inscribed with gold paint in the lower right corner: “Lady Caroline Howard” and “Lady Cawdor.”
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Caroline Howard, 1778, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.106

Lady Caroline Howard

Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1778 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.106

Shown from the hips up, a woman with pale skin, wearing a sapphire-blue gown, looks over her left shoulder at us in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our left in profile, and she looks at us from the corners of her large, hooded, gray eyes. She has an oval face with a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and her full, pink lips are closed. Wisps of brown hair fall across her forehead, and her face and neck are framed by a cloud of soft curls tied with a royal-blue bow over the ear on the side we can see. Around her neck is a cream-white pearl choker necklace. Her low-cut bodice is lined with transparent parchment-white fabric, which she holds at her chest with her right hand, farther from us. We see one blousy sleeve of her blue, satin dress, and the sleeve is tied at the elbow. Equally blousy white sleeves cover her forearms. With her left hand, closer to us, she holds a wreath of orange, pale blue, deep pink, and white flowers down by her waist. She is lit from the upper left, and the background behind her is dark in shadow. A patterned curtain hangs along the left edge of the painting.
Sébastien Bourdon, Countess Ebba Sparre, 1652/1653, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.34

Countess Ebba Sparre

Sébastien Bourdon · 1652/1653 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.34

Bibliography

1982

  • Brigstocke, Hugh. William Buchanan and the 19th Century Art Trade: 100 Letters to His Agents in London and Italy. New Haven, 1982: 464.