Provenance

Galerie Charpentier

Galerie Charpentier
Galerie Jean Charpentier
Hôtel Jean Charpentier

French

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See all 21 works of art
This painting depicts a man seated on an ornate chair, looking to the right. He has fair skin, grey curly hair, and is wearing a brown coat with gold trim and gray fur over a frilly white shirt. He is holding a large book open with his left hand, and his right hand rests on a stack of books. In the background, there is a blue drapery that partially obscures shelves with scientific equipment and glass jars. There is a dark gray column on the left.
Jean-Marc Nattier, Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson, 1745, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.30

Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson

Jean-Marc Nattier · 1745 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.30

Three men on horseback wearing elaborate military uniforms in cream white, crimson red, and gold almost fill this vertical painting. Lit dramatically from the upper left, the men all have peachy, tanned skin. Their red and white uniforms are trimmed liberally with gold. Each man wears a red sash across his chest, cream-white gloves that reach back to mid-forearm, and a tall hat topped with a single, stiff, white feather. At the center of the composition, the man closest to us rides a horse dappled with silver, steel gray, and black, which raises a front hoof as if in mid-stride. The horse and rider’s bodies are angled to our right, but the horse looks back to our left as the man looks directly at us with small brown eyes. His slender nose slopes to a brown handlebar moustache that curves over his pale peach mouth. He leans slightly back in the saddle, which is draped with a scarlet-red blanket with gold trim. The leg we see, to our left, is extended straight in the stirrup, and the man braces a brass trumpet adorned with gold tassels against that thigh. His helmet has a high, square, white crown that comes to points to each side and in front. The boxy shape is outlined in red and has the stiff, bushy feather at the top front and a red tassel hanging along one side. An arched brass plaque with a capital N is affixed to the front of the helmet over a narrow brim. Though held in place with a chin strap, the helmet is slightly askew. To our left and behind the central man, a white horse and rider face away from us. This rider’s upper body is turned back slightly to our right so we see him in profile as he holds a brass horn to his lips. To our right and set father back, the third rider and his gray horse are very loosely painted so features of his face and costume are not clear. All three stand on a ground painted with swipes of caramel brown, mustard yellow, and pine green. The background is slightly darker, in smoky tones of brown, gray, and black with flicks of red. A dark mass, perhaps a deep shadow, rises to the right, behind the third horseman.
Théodore Gericault, Mounted Trumpeters of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, 1813/1814, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 1972.25.1

Mounted Trumpeters of Napoleon's Imperial Guard

Théodore Gericault · 1813/1814 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.25.1

This painting shows a man depicted from two angles; on the left, he faces us, while on the right, his back is to us. In both views he wears the same clothes and is in the same position. The man has dark brown skin and a black mustache, with short black hair covered by a tilted red hat. He wears a long, brown, long-sleeved garment with a red section at his chest, a white sash around his waist, and a tan sash draped over his shoulders and across his chest. Under the garment he has striped gray pants and red sandals on his feet, the toes curved upwards. The man stands with one hand on his hip and the other hand placed on an indistinct object, possibly a chair. The background is painted in blurred shades of brown and gray.
Eugène Delacroix, Two Studies of a Standing Indian from Calcutta, c. 1823/1824, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2006.128.18

Two Studies of a Standing Indian from Calcutta

Eugène Delacroix · c. 1823/1824 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2006.128.18

A cleanshaven man in a saffron-yellow cloak runs and points to a nude woman whose fingers are turning into leafy tree branches in this horizontal painting. The woman is supported by an elderly man with a long beard and a winged young child all gathered around an oversized urn. The people all have pale rosy or tanned skin. To our right, the young man runs toward the woman to our left. His cloak wraps around his hips and flies out behind him. He wears a laurel wreath nestled in his blond hair, which is surrounded by a gold glow. A quiver of arrows hangs from one hip, and he wears sandals but is otherwise nude. He points to the woman with his right hand, on our left, with that foot raised. The blond, nude woman sits on the urn and lies back on a white cloth supported by a nude boy with short white wings. Her back is to us, and she looks to our right in profile. The fingers of her raised hands morph into muted green leaves. One of her legs bends over the arm of an old man who sits next to the urn and hooks one arm over its round body. The man’s head is topped with dark green material, like reeds, and he has a long white beard. His skin is ruddy, and his body is muscular. The urn’s opening faces us, and water pours onto the scarlet-red cloth that drapes across the old man’s hips and pools on the dirt ground around him. A spade with a long, wooden handle and a long, narrow blade lies on the ground before him. Evergreen trees grow up the left side of the scene, which appears to take place at the top of a mountain, for we look down into a dense forest beyond. A hazy blue mountain in the deep distance points up to the topaz-blue sky spanned with thin layers of gray-white clouds. The artist signed the lower left, “Gio. B. Tiepolo.”
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Apollo Pursuing Daphne, c. 1755/1760, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.78

Apollo Pursuing Daphne

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · c. 1755/1760 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.78

The sculpture is a large ornamental urn with intricate details and sculptural reliefs on its surface. The central panel depicts multiple human figures engaged in an activity. The urn features handles in the shape of ram heads, crafted from a material resembling white marble. It stands on a sturdy base and is balanced by a lid with a detailed finial. Decorative elements such as garlands and motifs adorn its surface.
Clodion, Monumental Urn, c. 1860, marble, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.2.2

Monumental Urn

Clodion · c. 1860 · marble ·  Accession ID  1940.2.2

The sculpture is a large, intricately designed urn with classical motifs. The focal point of the urn features a bas-relief depiction of a woman and a child, both seated and surrounded by a natural setting with trees and rocks. The scene is elegantly framed by ornate garland patterns and ribbon motifs. The urn has two large handles shaped like ram's heads, adding a distinctive and symmetrical feature to either side. It is crafted from white marble, giving it a smooth and pristine appearance, with finely polished surfaces that highlight the detailed artistry. The urn stands on a beautifully carved pedestal base, which is also adorned with patterns resembling leaves. Overall, this sculpture presents a harmonious blend of classical elements and exquisite craftsmanship, contributing to its aesthetic grandeur.
Clodion, Monumental Urn, c. 1860, marble, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.2.3

Monumental Urn

Clodion · c. 1860 · marble ·  Accession ID  1940.2.3

We look slightly down onto a group of people gathered along the bank of a river that winds around a copse of tall trees to our left, past a hill to our right, and into the deep distance in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the painting. More than a dozen people gather to converse in pairs or trios, or work loading a ship in the lower right corner of the composition. Most of the people seem to be men, except for two women who stand near a man who gestures to our left at the lower center of the painting. The people we can see have light or tanned skin. The men loading the boat to our right wear pants and shirts in navy blue, gray, tan, or crimson red. Men wearing hats and capes over suits near the lower center, and the women wear clothing in olive green, butter yellow, petal pink, coral red, or gray. Goods are strewn along the riverbank closest to us, including potted flowering plants to our left, a jumble of chairs, tables, and musical instruments nearby, and collections of wooden barrels to our right and in the lower left corner. Two more boats are moored at the shore in front of the grove of tall, dark green, leafy trees that take up the left third of the composition. The sage-green surface of the river curves to our right, to a tree-covered hill with a watermill at its base. A stone structure with a large, central, round tower sits along the top of that hill. The river continues to wind into the deep distance, where towns nestle along the bases of rolling, slate-blue mountains along the horizon. The sky above is pale yellow along the horizon and deepens to pale blue above. Smoke-gray clouds sweeping in from the right are lit bright cream-white where the sun catches the edges. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had written his name on the side of the boat in the lower left corner, though the inscription appears to be incomplete: “CLAVDIO o I Vo 16 9 OM.”
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Merchants, c. 1629, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.44

Landscape with Merchants

Claude Lorrain · c. 1629 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.44

A nude, muscular, pale-skinned man sits on a rock in front of a deep, shadowy landscape in this vertical painting. Most of the man’s body is silhouetted against the sky, and he nearly fills the picture. His body faces our right almost in profile, and he turns his head to look away. He has short black hair and a moustache and beard. The rest of his face is in shadow. He rests his left arm, farther from us, along a spear that spans the composition from the lower right corner to the upper left. He grips the spear with the other hand. One knee is bent so his foot is propped on the stone just below his seat. The other leg, closer to us, stretches long. He sits on a pine-green cloth draped over the rock. Bands of brown and then blue rocky hills line the horizon, which comes a quarter of the way up this composition. Steel-gray and white clouds fill the sky above.
Théodore Gericault, Nude Warrior with a Spear, c. 1816, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.29

Nude Warrior with a Spear

Théodore Gericault · c. 1816 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.29

A young man with tanned, peachy skin sits at a table pulling his mouth wide with both hands in this vertical painting. On the far side of a wooden table, he faces us with elbows splayed wide. He has hooked the first finger of each hand into the corners of his mouth to stretch his open lips into a long, goofy line. He has wide-set eyes and a wide nose. His brown hair sticks out from under a tall, fuzzy brown hat, which has a knife secured by the blade in a loop to our left. The man’s iron-gray jacket has coffee-brown sleeves with the white of his shirt showing at the cuffs. A putty-gray jug accented with washes of rust-red and a glass filled with an amber liquid sit on the table before him. Soft light from the upper left gleams white on these smooth surfaces. A dark mass visible under the table is presumably the tops of his legs. The top right corner of his wooden chair is visible over his right shoulder, on our left, and he is set against a dove-gray background. The scene is loosely painted so brushstrokes are especially visible in the man’s face and hands.
Adriaen Brouwer, Youth Making a Face, c. 1632/1635, oil on panel, New Century Fund, 1994.46.1

Youth Making a Face

Adriaen Brouwer · c. 1632/1635 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1994.46.1

We look across the water at two sailing ships with cream-white sails and dark rigging floating in a shimmering, ice-blue river against a distant shore lined with trees, hills, and buildings in this nearly square landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and the ships’ masts and sails are silhouetted against a topaz-blue sky with wispy white clouds. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout so many of the details are indistinct. One boat floats near the left edge of the painting and the second is situated a little father back, to our right of center. Both have rust-orange anchors painted near the pointed bows, which face us. Tall, narrow, asparagus-green trees line the far riverbank between the boats. Tall spires and towers of buildings rise in a cluster to our left near that edge of the canvas, and boats cluster near the distant shore to our right. Oatmeal-brown hills rise beyond the trees and town. The trees and boats are reflected in the water, which is painted with horizontal dashes and squiggles. The artist signed the painting in the lower left, “Claude Monet.”
Claude Monet, Ships Riding on the Seine at Rouen, 1872/1873, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.43

Ships Riding on the Seine at Rouen

Claude Monet · 1872/1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.43

Bibliography

1989

  • Les donateurs du Louvre. Paris, 1989:170