Provenance

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian

Turkish, 1869 - 1955

Explore Selected Works

Towering, pale, celery-green trees frame a view of a lush park with about a dozen elegantly dressed, light-skinned men and women in this vertical landscape painting. The color palette is dominated by moss and lemon-lime green, golden yellow, and spruce blue. The men all wear jackets with long tails over knee-breeches, and their long hair is pulled back at the napes of their necks. The women wear long dresses with full skirts and hints of lace at the sleeves and bust, and their brown or white hair is pulled up. Nine of the men and women gather to our right on a stone terrace along the bottom edge of the painting. A man in butter yellow kneels in front of a woman wearing rose pink. Around this pair, people stand, kneel, sit, or recline wearing aquamarine blue, light turquoise, or ivory white. A man and woman sit on a bench to our left, a little removed from the larger group. This woman wears ruby red and the man leaning toward her wears topaz blue. Two people in the park beyond these groups are painted with only a few strokes of pale blue and white paint, and they look over a low hedge row lining the walking path. Beds of red flowers fill the lower corners of the composition in front of a statue of a woman to our left and a person, perhaps on a fountain, to our right. The grassy walking path and trees become more blue as they fade into the hazy distance between the tall tress to either side. The sky fades from pale blue along the horizon to a silvery blue, almost white, at the top.
Jean Honoré Fragonard, A Game of Hot Cockles, c. 1775/1780, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1946.7.6

A Game of Hot Cockles

Jean Honoré Fragonard · c. 1775/1780 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1946.7.6

In a lush, tree-lined park, filtered light falls across a group of about a dozen light-skinned people lounging and frolicking along the banks of a river in this vertical landscape painting. A man wearing a shell-pink jacket and pants and woman wearing a topaz-blue, full-skirted dress and rose-pink bonnet sit near each other in the lower left corner. Several younger boys pile up in a game where one person tries to ride on the back of another, to our right. They wear rolled-up pants, open-necked shirts, and some wear straw-colored hats. Tall aspens, with smooth greenish-white trunks and soft, golden leaves, are among the trees that line this placid river. A gnarled trunk twists against the cloudless blue sky above the revelers to our right. Other couples board a long, narrow boat at the riverbank in the distance.
Jean Honoré Fragonard, A Game of Horse and Rider, c. 1775/1780, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1946.7.5

A Game of Horse and Rider

Jean Honoré Fragonard · c. 1775/1780 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1946.7.5

Francesco Guardi, Fanciful View of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, c. 1785, oil on canvas, Gift of Howard Sturges, 1956.9.2

Fanciful View of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome

Francesco Guardi · c. 1785 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.9.2