Charles Sedelmeyer

French, 1837 - 1925

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A smiling young child holds the latch of an open wooden door as she looks toward a woman to our right in this almost square painting. The woman and child both have pale skin and stand in a bedroom. To our left, the child is the same height as the door handle, and she faces us. Her blond, upswept hair is backlit, and light falls on her from windows to our left. She turns to look at the woman with dark eyes, a slight smile on her pink lips. She wears a garment with a mauve-gray bodice and sleeves, a sage-green apron over a honey-yellow, ankle-length skirt, and dark shoes. She holds the ring of the door latch with her right hand, to our left, and holds a ball by her side in her other hand. The room has white walls with thick wood beams above, wood molding around the door and window, and a clay-red tiled floor. On the wall to either side of the girl and about the same height as she is, white tiles painted with scenes in azure blue line the walls. Wooden chairs to either side of the door have lion-shaped finials and a diamond pattern on the cloth-covered backs. A landscape painting in a black frame hangs over the door, and a wood table covered with a red cloth, holding a ceramic jug, sits to our left, along the wall coming toward us. The rightmost third of the composition is spanned by a bed set within a ceiling-high, cabinet-like enclosure. The woman stands in front of the bed, her body facing our left in profile. A white kerchief covers her hair and is tied under her chin. She wears a red shirt with white at the chest and cuffs, which are rolled back. A marine-blue skirt falls to her ankles. She holds a brown cloth in front of her, and another cloth is draped over a chair. A gleaming, squat, brown jug sits on floor nearby. A forest-green curtain lines the squared opening to the bed, and another green curtain is pulled to one side of a window next to the open door. Through the door and window, we see a second door across a shallow entryway, which leads outside. Both halves of the outer, Dutch door are open, though the top half swings in a little more than the bottom half. The space beyond has a fence or trellis, green plants, and the edge of a red roof.
Pieter de Hooch, The Bedroom, 1658/1660, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.33

The Bedroom

Pieter de Hooch · 1658/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.33

The face of a young woman with pale, peachy skin materializes from a deeply shadowed background in this vertical portrait painting. Shown from the waist up, her body is angled to our right, and her face turns to look at us. She has gray eyes, a rounded nose, and her pink lips are slightly parted. A golden veil covers long strawberry-blond hair and falls down over the shoulders of her dark dress. The dress has a high, white lace collar, and a gold chain hangs over her shoulders and on her chest. Painted mostly with deep browns and earth tones, the light that falls on her face and hair creates an aura-like effect.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Saskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist, probably begun 1634/1635 and completed 1638/1640, oil on panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.71

Saskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist

Rembrandt van Rijn · probably begun 1634/1635 and completed 1638/1640 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.71

Dozens of people form a line starting from an opening in a city wall or building in the background to a rustic shed-like structure close to us, to kneel before a seated woman holding a baby on her lap in this vertical painting. All of the people have pale skin tinged faintly with green. The top edge of the panel is shaped so it has two rounded sections like shoulders leading to a stepped, crown-like form with an inward curving triangle at the top. A nickel-gray, crenelated stone wall of a distant city is nestled into the top, stepped section, with a glimmering gold sky above filling the uppermost triangle. Tile-roofed and domed buildings and a few towers appear densely packed beyond the wall. People on foot and horseback create a line from an arched opening in the wall toward us and to our right. Three of the people on horseback in the distance wear long robes and have gold halos. The line of people winds behind a tall, narrow hill to our right and it continues close to us. Two horses, two camels, and several people wait to the right but our attention is drawn to the trio in the foreground, Mary, Jesus, and Joseph, and the three men near the infant, the Magi. Mary wears a lapis-blue mantle covering her head and shoulders over a petal-pink dress, and she sits on a wooden or stone chest in the center of the painting. Her body faces us but she turns her face to look with pale blue eyes off to our right. In one hand she holds a hexagonal gold vessel that tapers to a flame-like finial. With the other hand, on our left, she supports the blond infant sitting in her lap. He is covered only with a white cloth around his waist, and he looks toward the vessel as he holds up the index and middle fingers of his right hand. To our left and slightly behind Mary, a balding man with white hair and beard and wearing a blue garment under a red robe sits with his head propped in his hand, looking down. His other hand rests on what might be the handle of a crutch or staff. The man, woman, and child have gold halos with what appears to be writing. The three Magi also have gold halos and they all wear scarlet-red shoes. The oldest kneels before Mary and kisses Jesus's feet. He has a long, light gray beard and is balding. He wears a brocade-like gold robe over pale brick-red sleeves. A cleanshaven man with dark brown hair and wrinkles around his mouth kneels to our left as he raises a jewel-encrusted gold crown from his head. He wears a gold and red floral-patterned garment and holds a rounded vessel, also with a flame-like finial. A younger, cleanshaven man with smooth features and shoulder-length, curling blond hair to our right also wears a gold crown. A dagger hangs from the waist of his sky-blue tunic, and his leggings are pale plum purple. Both arms are bent to his hands are held up, and in his right hand, he holds another tabernacle-like gold vessel. The structure to our left houses a donkey and bull munching hay. A gold sunburst floats above the roof, which seems to be built up against the stone wall of a building. The hills and trees beyond the people is painted with pine and moss greens and brown.
Benvenuto di Giovanni, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1470/1475, tempera on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.10

The Adoration of the Magi

Benvenuto di Giovanni · c. 1470/1475 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.10

Bernardino Luini, The Misfortunes of Cephalus, c. 1520/1522, fresco, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.59

The Misfortunes of Cephalus

Bernardino Luini · c. 1520/1522 · fresco ·  Accession ID  1943.4.59

Bernardino Luini, Cephalus and Pan at the Temple of Diana, c. 1520/1522, fresco, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.54

Cephalus and Pan at the Temple of Diana

Bernardino Luini · c. 1520/1522 · fresco ·  Accession ID  1943.4.54

Bernardino Luini, Cephalus Punished at the Hunt, c. 1520/1522, fresco, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.55

Cephalus Punished at the Hunt

Bernardino Luini · c. 1520/1522 · fresco ·  Accession ID  1943.4.55

Bernardino Luini, Procris and the Unicorn, c. 1520/1522, fresco, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.60

Procris and the Unicorn

Bernardino Luini · c. 1520/1522 · fresco ·  Accession ID  1943.4.60

Three men and a woman sit around a wooden table on the right side of a dimly lit room in this horizontal painting. The scene is painted entirely in warm shades of bronze, golden yellow, and dark brown. A cleanshaven man to our right, Mercury, is dramatically backlit by golden light so we see his face almost in silhouette, though we can make out his eyes, straight nose, and parted lips. He rests both hands on the table, one palm down by the edge close to him and one palm up in front of him, near a glass of amber-colored liquid. He wears a gray and brown tunic, and light glinting in his chin-length hair suggests a silver band or another ornament. He looks toward a man and woman at the other end of the table, to our left and near the center of the composition. The woman’s head is covered with a dark cloth, and she holds a gray fowl in her lap. Her lips are also parted and her face tips down. The man next to her, closer to us, has a gray beard and hair, and he holds a rust-red cap at his chest with both hands as he looks across the table. A bowl of food lies in the center of the table between this couple and Mercury. The fourth person has a long gray beard and hair, and faces us across the table. He wears a gleaming copper and silvery-gray robe and cloak, and holds one hand up, palm down, over the table. Much of the rest of the room is swallowed in shadow but there is the suggestion of rafters and beams, and a small fire glows in a hearth on the left side of the scene. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “Rembrandt f. 1658.”
Rembrandt van Rijn, Philemon and Baucis, 1658, oil on panel transferred to panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.65

Philemon and Baucis

Rembrandt van Rijn · 1658 · oil on panel transferred to panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.65

Shown from the chest up, a light-skinned man with a gaunt face, wearing a large, dark brown hat, almost fills this vertical painting. His chest faces us, leaning over his hands, which are folded along the bottom of the painting. His head turns to our left, and he looks in that direction. His deep set, hazel eyes are rimmed in pink under dark, thick brows. His long nose has a slight bump at the bridge, and his pale coral-red mouth is slightly open, creating shaded hollows under high cheek bones. His brown beard is trimmed straight across the bottom. The soft, oversized, earth-brown beret covers most of his head, leaving just a fringe of dark brown hair along his forehead. A brocaded robe with bands of rust red and gold is draped over a mustard-yellow garment with a low scooped neckline. The garment is layered over a high-necked, pleated, ivory-white undergarment. A thick gold chain hangs low across his chest, and the background is mottled with honey and tawny brown.
Dutch 17th Century, Willem Drost, The Philosopher, c. 1653, oil on panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.66

The Philosopher

Dutch 17th Century, Willem Drost · c. 1653 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.66

Bernardino Luini, Cephalus and the Nymphs, c. 1520/1522, fresco, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.57

Cephalus and the Nymphs

Bernardino Luini · c. 1520/1522 · fresco ·  Accession ID  1943.4.57

Bibliography

1989

  • Les donateurs du Louvre. Paris, 1989:321

1999

  • Huemer, Christian. "Charles Sedelmeyer (1837-1925): Kunst und Spekulation am Kunstmarkt in Paris" Belvedere 2/99 (1999): 4-19.