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Auguste Renoir, The Young Soldier, c. 1880, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.46

The Young Soldier

Auguste Renoir · c. 1880 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.46

Jean Honoré Fragonard, The Bedroom (Le Coucher or Ma Chemise brule), brush and brown ink with brown wash over graphite on laid paper, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1963.15.10

The Bedroom (Le Coucher or Ma Chemise brule)

Jean Honoré Fragonard · · brush and brown ink with brown wash over graphite on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1963.15.10

To our right in this vibrantly colored, stylized, nearly square painting, a woman with light, peach-colored skin and chestnut-brown hair sits slumped along a table as she sleeps, her head resting on one extended arm. The lilac-purple tabletop has round forms representing fruit scattered around a potted plant. Many of the forms are outlined with gray and filled in with mostly flat areas of color in mint and sage green, icy blue, coral red, orange, and lemon yellow. The tabletop curves around its edges and the surface is vivid purple, while the skirt and legs of the table are pale ginger brown. The woman’s head rests facing us on her bent right arm, that hand dangling over the front edge of the table. She rests her other hand, closer to us, near the crook of her elbow. She wears a white, blousy top with rows of navy-blue zigzags on the shoulder and elongated dots on the sleeves, and a light, mint-green skirt. Her brown hair seems to be pulled back and gathered into bunches of curving waves. Her stylized eyes, nose, and mouth are drawn simply with gray lines. The round orange, peach, and yellow fruit on the table are scattered near her arm and across the table to the other side, close to a plant in a brown clay pot. The plant has shoots of long, curving stems with vibrant spruce-green leaves. Two more plants are behind the woman near the back wall, in front a rectangular opening over the woman that could be a window or mirror. The glass is painted with streaks of baby blue and pale magenta pink around a field of white, and is outlined with a band of sunshine yellow and then scarlet red. The wall around it is also painted with watercolor-like, soft fields of pale blue and pink. The floor under the table and to our left is a flat field of caramel brown. Behind the table and to our left, forms suggest a wooden chair and a blue and white ceramic pot on a tall, spindly stand. In the lower left corner of the canvas, the artist signed and dated the work with dark red paint: “40 Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Still Life with Sleeping Woman, 1940, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.26

Still Life with Sleeping Woman

Henri Matisse · 1940 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.26

Pisanello, Pelican in Her Piety [reverse], c. 1446, bronze, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.610.b

Pelican in Her Piety [reverse]

Pisanello · c. 1446 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1957.14.610.b

Pisanello, Vittorino de' Rambaldoni da Feltre, 1379-1446, Humanist [obverse], c. 1446, bronze, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.610.a

Vittorino de' Rambaldoni da Feltre, 1379-1446, Humanist [obverse]

Pisanello · c. 1446 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1957.14.610.a

Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait, c. 1917, cast c. 1925-1928, bronze, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Lauder, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.36.1

Self-Portrait

Egon Schiele · c. 1917, cast c. 1925-1928 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1991.36.1

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Tempio antico, published 1748/1749, etching, engraving, drypoint, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1974.66.1

Tempio antico

Giovanni Battista Piranesi · published 1748/1749 · etching, engraving, drypoint ·  Accession ID  1974.66.1

Giovanni da Cavino, Temple of Eternity with Goddess [reverse], 1540 or before, bronze, Sculpture and Decorative Arts Curators Fund, 1986.29.1.b

Temple of Eternity with Goddess [reverse]

Giovanni da Cavino · 1540 or before · bronze ·  Accession ID  1986.29.1.b

Giovanni da Cavino, Marco Mantova Benavides, 1489-1582, Lawyer and Collector [obverse], 1540 or before, bronze, Sculpture and Decorative Arts Curators Fund, 1986.29.1.a

Marco Mantova Benavides, 1489-1582, Lawyer and Collector [obverse]

Giovanni da Cavino · 1540 or before · bronze ·  Accession ID  1986.29.1.a

Pietro Giacomo Palmieri, Fortified Bridge against Distant Mountains, c. 1760, pen and brown ink over black chalk, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1985.7.4

Fortified Bridge against Distant Mountains

Pietro Giacomo Palmieri · c. 1760 · pen and brown ink over black chalk ·  Accession ID  1985.7.4