Provenance

Jacques Seligmann

French, 1858 - 1923

Explore Selected Works

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The Departure

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater · early 18th century · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2014.136.39

French 18th Century, Louis, Duc de Bourgogne, 18th century, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1960.5.8

Louis, Duc de Bourgogne

French 18th Century · 18th century · marble ·  Accession ID  1960.5.8

Shown from the lap up, a young woman with pale skin, rosy cheeks, dark eyes, and upswept chestnut-brown hair sits in an upholstered chair angled to our left and she looks in that direction in this vertical portrait painting. Light falls directly on her oval-shaped face, and she has a pointed chin and a straight nose. Her dark eyebrows are arched and though her eyes initially look dark as well, closer inspection reveals a sliver of silvery blue iris around the eye closer to us. Her full, pink mouth is slightly parted. She wears a brown, perhaps fur, shawl behind her shoulders over her long black dress. A few touches of rust red on the sleeve closer to us suggests a floral pattern but details are mostly lost in this dark area. She wears parchment-white gloves and her left hand, closer to us, appears to be tucked into a pocket or into a fold of her skirt so only the wrist is visible. She cups her opposite hand, perhaps cradling a small object. The fabric of the chair is painted with touches of burnt orange and ivory. Canary-yellow and white flowers dance around her head, presumably cascading from a vase on a table behind her. Most of the background, especially along the left edge, is painted with a field of stone blue but an area of loosely painted terracotta red above her head suggests a patterned wallpaper or more flowers.
Edgar Degas, Mademoiselle Malot, c. 1877, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.18

Mademoiselle Malot

Edgar Degas · c. 1877 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.18

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Camping

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater · early 18th century · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2014.136.38

Shown from about the ankles up, a woman with ashen, pale skin, wearing a full, silvery-white dress with gray dots, sits on a low-backed white sofa against a pale peach background in this horizontal portrait painting. Just to our left of center, the woman sits with her body angled to our left and she looks in that direction with pale green eyes. Touches of green shade the inner corners of the eyes, and her complexion has a yellowish cast. Her pink lips are closed and her chestnut-brown hair is parted in the middle and pulled back. Her hands rest in her lap with wrists crossed. The dress darkens from eggshell white on the chest and sleeves to nickel gray on the skirt. Charcoal-gray dots create an irregular pattern that becomes looser as it moves down the skirt. Her dress is cinched at the waist with a black sash. The skirt spreads over her settee, which has a low back that angles up on our left. The peach wall behind her takes up the top half of the composition. The painting is created blended brushstrokes, giving it a soft, almost hazy look. The artist’s signature in red appears in the lower right corner: “Degas.”
Edgar Degas, Madame René de Gas, 1872/1873, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.124

Madame René de Gas

Edgar Degas · 1872/1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.124

Francesco Laurana, A Young Noblewoman, c. 1475 or later, marble, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.119

A Young Noblewoman

Francesco Laurana · c. 1475 or later · marble ·  Accession ID  1937.1.119

Severo da Ravenna, Neptune on a Sea Monster, c. 1500/1509, bronze, Widener Collection, 1942.9.104

Neptune on a Sea Monster

Severo da Ravenna · c. 1500/1509 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1942.9.104

A band of several galloping horses and riders move across the center of this vertical painting. The color palette is dominated by blended earthy brown, green, and pale pink. The horses, which have reddish-brown coats and tails, nearly span the width of the painting. They move to our left with their legs fully extended. Underneath the horses’ flying legs lies the body of a man. The felled rider faces upward, his eyes closed and his legs splayed. He has a light brown beard, mustache, and hair, and pale tan skin. He wears brown riding boots with black tops, white breeches, and a pink jersey with black sleeves. His riding helmet, with a matching pink cover, lies behind his head on the ground. At least three additional horses are in the band, and the two foremost have empty saddles. The two horses beyond them, farther into the picture, have male riders, who wear riding outfits and helmets in colors of smudged and blended orange, lavender purple, and green. They also have brown mustaches and beards. The band races through a field painted with a muddy green interspersed with strokes of orange and white. The horizon line is high, just above the level of the horses’ backs, about four-fifths of the way up the painting. Blue sky peeks out amid a mixture of pale pink and yellow clouds above. There are trees in the background indicated by a few strokes and dashes of paint. The painting style is loose and brushy throughout, without sharp detail or lines, except for the sketched-in black lines that delineate the bodies and tack of the horses.
Edgar Degas, Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey, 1866, reworked 1880-1881 and c. 1897, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1999.79.10

Scene from the Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey

Edgar Degas · 1866, reworked 1880-1881 and c. 1897 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1999.79.10

Bibliography

1961

  • Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, 1961.