Provenance

John Woodruff Simpson

American, 1850 - 1920

Explore Selected Works

Jean Honoré Fragonard, Love the Sentinel, c. 1773/1776, oil on canvas, In memory of Kate Seney Simpson, 1947.2.2

Love the Sentinel

Jean Honoré Fragonard · c. 1773/1776 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1947.2.2

Clodion, Satyrs at Play, c. 1850, terracotta, Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.31

Satyrs at Play

Clodion · c. 1850 · terracotta ·  Accession ID  1942.5.31

Jean-Charles Cazin, The Windmill, probably after 1884, oil on wood, Gift of R. Horace Gallatin, 1949.1.1

The Windmill

Jean-Charles Cazin · probably after 1884 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1949.1.1

A young man and child, both with pale skin, are framed within the rectangular opening of a stone window in this vertical painting. At the center, the young man leans toward us over his forearms, which rest on the wide ledge. Angled to our right, he holds a long straw to his mouth to blow a large, glistening bubble that hangs on the opposite end. A second straw rests in a glass cup filled with white liquid, presumably soapy water, that sits near his right elbow, on our left, and he looks down at the bubble. His chestnut-brown hair is tied back with a black ribbon, and curls hang down from his temple. He wears a brown jacket over a white shirt. A younger child peeks over the ledge to our right and also looks at the bubble. Seen from the nose up, the child wears a hat that curves up and over the crown of the head. The face of the brown stone building into which the window is cut seems close to us. A vine of ivy climbs up the face of the building to our left.
Jean Siméon Chardin, Soap Bubbles, probably 1733/1734, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.1

Soap Bubbles

Jean Siméon Chardin · probably 1733/1734 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.5.1

Jean Honoré Fragonard, Love as Folly, c. 1773/1776, oil on canvas, In memory of Kate Seney Simpson, 1947.2.1

Love as Folly

Jean Honoré Fragonard · c. 1773/1776 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1947.2.1

Two young boys sit side by side on some boulders with a cloudy sky behind them and dark tree branches above in this vertical portrait painting. The boys both have pale skin with flushed, round cheeks, short, light brown hair, and brown eyes. They wear matching russet-brown suits with rows of gold-colored buttons on their chests and white ruffles that pop out of their collars, white stockings, and black, laced up shoes. The boy on our right looks at us with his right hand on the other boy’s shoulder. That second boy sits on a lower rock and looks up at the first while draping one arm over the first boy’s lap. The second boy holds a plum-purple and powder-blue hat in one hand and a stick with a rope attached, perhaps a whip, in the other. Another hat lies on a boulder under the rope. A few crisp sage-green, deep yellow, and brown leaves have fallen to the ground at the boys' feet. The tree above and distant landscape beyond are loosely painted in hazy tones of yellow, smoky green, brown, and slate blue.
Sir Henry Raeburn, The Binning Children, probably c. 1811, oil on canvas, Given in memory of John Woodruff Simpson, 1942.5.2

The Binning Children

Sir Henry Raeburn · probably c. 1811 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.5.2

Bibliography

1920

  • "J.W. Simpson Dead of Complications." The New York Times (17 May 1920):15:1