Provenance

Sotheby's

Private Collection c/o Sotheby's
Sotheby & Co.
Sotheby Parke Bernet
Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge

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Olivier Le May, View of Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue, 1787, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 2026.15.1

View of Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue

Olivier Le May · 1787 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2026.15.1

Frederic Edwin Church, Newport Mountain, Mount Desert, 1851, oil on canvas, John Wilmerding Collection, 2025.89.1

Newport Mountain, Mount Desert

Frederic Edwin Church · 1851 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2025.89.1

Cornelis Bisschop, Woman with a Pearl Necklace, 1650s, oil on canvas, Gift of Miriam and Eliezer Benbassat, 2025.11.2

Woman with a Pearl Necklace

Cornelis Bisschop · 1650s · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2025.11.2

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

Netherlandish 16th Century, Coconut Cup with Silver Gilt Mounts, c. 1540, coconut mounted in gilded silver, Gift of Funds from Marina French and Jacqueline B. Mars in honor of Eric L. Motley, 2024.125.1

Coconut Cup with Silver Gilt Mounts

Netherlandish 16th Century · c. 1540 · coconut mounted in gilded silver ·  Accession ID  2024.125.1

A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”
Jan van Kessel the Elder, Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary, 1653, oil on copper, The Richard C. Von Hess Foundation, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, Barry D. Friedman, and Friends of Dutch Art, 2018.41.1

Insects and a Sprig of Rosemary

Jan van Kessel the Elder · 1653 · oil on copper ·  Accession ID  2018.41.1

A masted ship with tattered sails crashes near a rocky shore among choppy waves, beneath a sky filled with charcoal-gray clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. More then two dozen men and women are scattered among the wreckage and along the shore. They all have pale skin and are small in scale within the landscape. Some of them are barefoot, and they wear clothing in ivory white, ruby red, slate gray, beige, or teal blue. The tall mast of the ship pitches at a steep angle from near the lower right corner of the canvas toward the upper left. A narrow red flag streams in the wind from the top of the mast. Seven men cling to the crow’s nest, a platform near the top of the mast, and on the mast around it. More people work amid a fallen sail on the ship’s deck and dangle from the rigging that is being pulled ashore by others. The ship’s second mast is broken in half, splintered where it has fallen against jagged boulders in the lower right corner. On the shore, a woman wearing a pink dress and blue stockings holds her arms up to the sky as a bare-chested man wraps his arms around her waist. A man nearby hunches over as he hauls in a cage from the surf. To our left, a second woman is surrounded by three men, two of whom support her torso. She wears a pale yellow skirt and her white shirt has fallen to expose one breast. Two trunks and a large roll of cloth are piled behind the trio, to our left. On the other side of the group, a brown dog sits and looks back over its shoulder toward a man who rolls a barrel onto the beach. A rocky, vertical cliff nearly spans the height of the left edge of the painting, and the cliffs continue along the waterline into the distance. Two people perch on a rocky outcropping near those on the beach, and a tree with a cracked, splintered trunk is doubled back by the wind above the pair. Water sprays high against the cliffs beyond, and a fortress with a castle sits atop the cliffs in the distance. Farther out in the water and to our right, a second ship with sails bulging in the wind lurches to the right. A streak of bright, golden-yellow lightning zigzags in the bank of clouds over this ship and reaches the horizon to our left, illuminating the low skyline of a town in the deep distance, beyond the cliffs. The clouds around the lightning are bathed in coral-peach light, but the surrounding clouds are dark gray. The artist signed and dated the work as if he had inscribed the side of one trunk, near the lower left corner, “J. Vernet F. 1772.”
Claude-Joseph Vernet, The Shipwreck, 1772, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Chester Dale Fund, 2000.22.1

The Shipwreck

Claude-Joseph Vernet · 1772 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2000.22.1

Giovanni Antonio Fornari, Holy-Water Stoup, c. 1765-1775, silver, lapis lazuli, gilded bronze, and copper, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2012.107.1

Holy-Water Stoup

Giovanni Antonio Fornari · c. 1765-1775 · silver, lapis lazuli, gilded bronze, and copper ·  Accession ID  2012.107.1

We hover low over a body of choppy water in front of several rowboats filled to capacity with light-skinned men jostling and fighting each other amid larger wooden ships in this horizontal painting of a naval battle. The water transitions from tan and pale green near us to sage green in the background. A few of the men are bare-chested but most wear a wide range of colorful military uniforms or the full-sleeved shirts of sailors. A few vignettes within the bustling, action-filled boats draw our attention. For instance, at the center of the hubbub, two men wearing white shirts lean over the stern of a crowded boat, pulling two submerged men out of the water. Three other men float nearby, only their heads peeking above the water. In the same boat, another rescuer reaches for a man in the water, while yet another has pulled an unconscious or lifeless man into his arms. That rowboat bumps into several others filled with men weilding swords, long muskets, and perhaps spears. Much of the activity swirls around two men who stand in the boats to our right. One man wearing a fawn-brown uniform with gold embellishments, a white neck cloth, and a brown hat with red feathers brandishes a sword as he seizes the shirttails of a man wearing blue. The man in blue steps into another boat and clutches the mast as he raises his own sword up over his head. With eyes and mouth wide open, he looks over his shoulder toward the man in brown. Boats to our left are also filled with men but they sit in orderly rows. One man wearing a rust-orange suit and white plumed hat holds a sword in front of his body and raises his other pointer finger. A man blows a long horn behind the standing man. Other rowboats fill the space behind these, and surround three large wooden, ornately carved and decorated ships beyond. The carved insignia of the rightmost ship looms close to us along the right edge of the canvas; boats swarm around another ship in the distance at center; and flame and smoke billow from the ship to our left.
Benjamin West, The Battle of La Hogue, 1778, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1959.8.1

The Battle of La Hogue

Benjamin West · 1778 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1959.8.1

Five people gathered around a woman holding a nude baby boy fill this square painting. The woman is at the center of the composition with her head almost touching the top edge. She has pale skin, blond hair, and a gold halo painted as a single line. She looks down at the child she supports on her left knee, to our right. She wears a marine-blue robe over a raspberry-red dress. The child also has pale skin and blond hair. His cheeks are flushed, and he reaches forward with one chubby arm. The balding, light-skinned man kneeling in front of him and to our left holds out a gold, orb-shaped vessel. That man is bearded with white hair, and he wears a canary-yellow cloak over a leaf-green robe and pale brown, calf-high boots. A smaller person, also kneeling, holds a crown just behind the older man. That person and the two men who stand on the far side have pale, peachy skin. One of the standing men wears honey orange and forest green and a gold crown over his long brown hair. He holds up another vessel, this one bronze brown with gold fittings, out to another bearded, balding man standing behind the woman. To the right, a man with brown skin also wears a crown, holds a gold vessel, and has a cloak patterned with crimson red over pearl white. The underside of the cloak is laurel green, and this man appears to be barefoot. He stands facing away from us so only his cheek and one ear are visible as he faces the baby. A gray horse with a gold halter is behind the Black man in the upper right corner.
Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, called Morazzone, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1600, oil on panel, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2016.87.1

The Adoration of the Magi

Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, called Morazzone · c. 1600 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2016.87.1

Bibliography

1981

  • Herrmann, Frank. Sotheby's: Portrait of an Auction House. New York, 1981.

1985

  • Faith, Nicholas. Sold: The Rise and Fall of the House of Sotheby. New York, 1985.

1996

  • Lacy, Robert. "A Grand Old Rivalry." Vanity Fair January 1996:107+