Otto H. Kahn

American, 1867 - 1934

Explore Selected Works

A woman sits on a wide, high-backed throne with a child on her lap against a gold background in this vertical painting. Their peachy skin is deeply shadowed with greenish gray. To our left of center, the woman’s body nearly fills the panel as she sits with her shoulders angled slightly to our right. She tilts her head in that direction as she gazes at us from the corners of almond-shaped, hazel eyes under arched brows. She has a slender face with a long nose and a petite coral-red mouth. A marine-blue mantle covers her head and wraps around her body. The mantle has fallen open at the neckline and the right knee to reveal her dark, navy-blue robe underneath. The child sits upright in the crook of her left arm, on our right. Her left hand cradles the child’s bottom while her other hand, to our left, rests delicately on his knee. The child faces our left and tilts his head to look up at the woman while reaching his far hand to her with two raised fingers. A bone-white scroll is clutched in his near hand. He has wavy, chestnut-brown hair and large, dark eyes. He wears a tomato-red robe and thin, black sandals. A spruce-blue sash wraps around the shoulders and waist of the robe. The folds and creases of their garments are suggested by densely spaced gold lines that bend in angular curves around their knees, legs, and arms. In pointed red shoes, the woman rests her feet on a stool just before the wide, ginger-brown throne, which is decorated with inset camel-brown and tan squares and rectangles. The back of the throne alternates between bands of carved decoration and spindles. Teardrop-shaped finials line the back. The woman and child have halos incised into the gold background beyond them. The child’s halo is divided by three, wide, garnet-red rays. Winged angels with gold halos in brick-red circles hover in the upper left and right. The glimmering gold background is worn in some areas and is cracked throughout.
Byzantine 13th Century, Enthroned Madonna and Child, c. 1250/1275, tempera on poplar panel, Gift of Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, 1949.7.1

Enthroned Madonna and Child

Byzantine 13th Century · c. 1250/1275 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1949.7.1

Florentine 15th Century, An Old Man, second half 15th century, painted terracotta, Given by the children of Mr. and Mrs. Otto B. Kahn in memory of their parents, 1952.13.1

An Old Man

Florentine 15th Century · second half 15th century · painted terracotta ·  Accession ID  1952.13.1

North Italian 16th Century, Veronese 16th Century, Madonna and Sleeping Child, c. 1500/1510, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1960.5.3

Madonna and Sleeping Child

North Italian 16th Century, Veronese 16th Century · c. 1500/1510 · marble ·  Accession ID  1960.5.3

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

Carved from cream-white alabaster stone, this free-standing sculpture shows an armored knight sitting atop a horse, which straddles a curled up, snarling dragon in front of a kneeling person. In this photograph, the bodies of the horse and man face our left in profile. The dragon is pinned on its back with its head under the horse’s mouth. There are some losses: the head of the kneeling person is gone, and parts of both of the knight’s arms are missing. The lance the knight holds and the sword at his hip are also fragmented. The knight leans forward with his right arm, farther from us, raised and a shield with a red cross is affixed to the opposite upper arm. His pointed, rounded helmet is lined with chain mail around the chin and neck. Simple bands in gold, red, and black decorate the knight’s armor as well as the saddle and bridle on the horse. The horse looks down at the dragon underfoot, his chin pulled sharply back. The dragon is painted burgundy red, and has a large head with a gaping mouth filled with sharp teeth and fangs. Claws tear at the horse’s legs as the knight drives the lance into the dragon’s body. The creature’s black wings are pinned under its body, and its dotted tail curls up between the hind legs. To our left, near the dragon and horse's heads, the kneeling person wears a gold-edged dress under a voluminous robe. One hand holds the black and gold striped band looping around the dragon’s neck, and the other is raised to that person’s chest. The stone under the people and animals is roughly carved, suggesting a rocky ground.
English 14th Century, English 15th Century, Saint George and the Dragon, 1370/1420, painted and gilded alabaster, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1953.2.2

Saint George and the Dragon

English 14th Century, English 15th Century · 1370/1420 · painted and gilded alabaster ·  Accession ID  1953.2.2

Close to us, a bearded, balding man leads a donkey carrying a woman and child to our right against a hilly landscape in this horizontal painting. All three people have pale, peachy skin and halos. The man has a gray beard and hair, and wears a royal-blue tunic under a ruby-red robe. He leans on a walking stick and looks back at the donkey. The woman riding the donkey wears a blue and gold brocade-like cloak covering her head and body. She has a straight nose, small pink lips, and she looks toward the infant she holds close to her body. The baby wears a white garment and reaches for the woman’s face with one hand as he turns to look over his shoulder toward us. The path they walk on is lined with grass and detailed plants. A river runs parallel to the path a short distance away. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the painting is lined with green trees, blue mountains, and a few buildings to our left. Wispy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky streaked with peach near the horizon.
Vittore Carpaccio, The Flight into Egypt, c. 1515, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.28

The Flight into Egypt

Vittore Carpaccio · c. 1515 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.28

Luca della Robbia, The Nativity, c. 1460, glazed terracotta, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.1.3

The Nativity

Luca della Robbia · c. 1460 · glazed terracotta ·  Accession ID  1961.1.3

In front of a crumbling stone building, an older man kneels in front of a second man, smaller in scale, hanging from a tall, wooden cross, with a city in the background in this vertical painting. Both men have pale skin. At the lower center of the composition, the kneeling man, Saint Jerome, pulls his navy-blue robe to one side to expose his muscular but slender bare chest with a bloody mark at its center. With his other hand, he holds a rounded, gray stone touched with pink, also suggesting blood, by his side. He has long, silvery-gray hair and a long, pointed beard. His pink lips are parted, and we see his teeth. He raises gray eyes to look up at the man on the slender cross, which rises along the left edge of the composition. The man on the cross brown hair, a plate-like gold halo, and a white loincloth is draped across his hips. The shell-pink ground is littered with rocks. A red hat with a shallow brim and a tasseled chin cord sits near Saint Jerome’s sandaled feet. A miniature lion lies between Saint Jerome and the arched opening of the crumbling, terracotta-red structure along the right edge of the painting. Ivy grows up one side of the arch, and an hourglass and book with a red cover and gold-edged pages sit on a white cloth under the opening. An owl perches on a branch of an oak tree growing from the front face of the structure, and a hawk sits on a branch of the fruit tree growing from the stone courtyard, between Saint Jerome and the crucifix. A shrub with dark green leaves and clusters of three olive-green fruits fills in most of the space beneath the canopy of the fruit tree. To our right and in the distance, a man with a pointed black hat, a black jacket, and white pants rides away from us on a gray horse. To our left, the courtyard gives way to an amphitheater-like space. There, next to a donkey, a man with a long white beard hands a bundle of wood or planks to another man whose brown hair is cut into a ring encircling his head. Both men wear rose-pink garments over navy-blue togas. A town with white and pale pink stone buildings rises up a hill into the distance. The sky above deepens from honeydew green along the horizon to pale then peacock blue along the top edge of the composition. A few ice-blue, white, and light gray clouds float across the sky.
Anonymous Artist, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, c. 1475, tempera on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.32

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Anonymous Artist · c. 1475 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.32

A woman holding a baby sits on a throne in front of a cloth held up by five winged angels in this vertical painting. The woman, baby, and angels all have pale skin tinged with gray, long, straight noses, narrow mouths, almond-shaped eyes, and gold halos. The woman sits with her knees and shoulders squared to us. She looks at us with light brown eyes, and her head tips slightly to the right, toward the baby. A white veil drapes over her head and shoulders, and she wears a slate-blue dress under a teal-green robe, which is lined with pale, spring green. Gold lines densely spaced across the dress and robe suggest folds and wrinkles. She supports the baby’s bottom with her left hand, to our right. He sits upright with his knees and body angled to our left. He reaches up with his right hand, to our left, to touch the woman’s veil, and the other hand rests on an oversized cricket in his lap. He wears a transparent white garment edged with gold and a marigold yellow and coral orange cloth wrapped across his lap over bare feet. His features are small in a round face. He has brown hair, and his hairline is high. The cloth behind the pair is patterned with gray, brick red, and gold. Two angels hold up each long side and one holds up the top. The angels all look in or down. They have brown hair, and wings and robes in shades of golden yellow, pale peach, and celestial blue. The throne has a blocky seat, and the base projects in a semicircle against the navy-blue floor. There are lion finials at the front of each arm. The background is gilded with a leafy pattern in gleaming gold. The upper corners and some areas along the edges are damaged.
Giovanni Baronzio, Madonna and Child with Five Angels, c. 1335, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.45

Madonna and Child with Five Angels

Giovanni Baronzio · c. 1335 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1943.4.45

A clean-shaven, pale-skinned man wearing all white, a black-speckled white fur cape, and brimless black hat stands and looks at us in this full-length, vertical portrait painting. The man’s body and face are angled to our right, but he looks at us from the corners of his brown eyes under dark, curved brows. He has a slightly bulbous nose, the suggestion of a cleft chin, and his thin, pink lips are closed. His brown hair is cut short under the cap, which has a high crown. The hat is lined with jeweled gold medallions and pearls around the bottom edge, and the barbs of the white feather flicker like a busy flame. The lace-edged ruff, which is pleated in figure eights, hugs his chin and the back of his neck. The high-collared, white, long-sleeved jacket is textured in narrow, horizontal bands. A narrow black belt decorated with silver trim and pearls loops around his waist, and a sword hangs from the far hip. The white-on-white patterned breeches puff out at the waist and are gathered high on the thigh, like puffy shorts. He wears smooth, cream-white stockings and the same color slippers. The hip-length fur cape hooks over the far shoulder, and that hand rests on the pearled hilt of a thin sword. His other elbow is bent, and he holds a pair of gold and brown-colored gloves in that hand. The first two fingers are extended to lie along the fabric of his pants. The wall behind the man is earthy green and the floor a rosy peach. Gold text in the upper left corner of the painting reads, “FRANCOIS DVC DALENCON EAGE DE XVIII ANS LE XIXE IONR DE MARS AN 1572 FILS DE HENRŸ II DE CE NO ROŸ DE FRANCE.”
French 16th Century, Prince Hercule-François, Duc d'Alençon, 1572, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.55

Prince Hercule-François, Duc d'Alençon

French 16th Century · 1572 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.55

Bibliography

1925

  • M'Cormick, William B. "Otto H. Kahn Collection." International Studio 80 (January 1925): 279-86.

1934

  • Art Digest 8 (15 April 1934): 7.