Peasant Interior

c. 1645

Louis Le Nain

Artist, French, c. 1600/1603 - 1648

An elderly man, woman, and boy sit around a makeshift table in an interior as a girl stands by a fire in the background in this nearly square painting. The man, woman, and boy sit at a low, wide barrel partially covered with a white cloth. Their pale skin and clothing, in frosty tones of sand brown and white, are washed out by the bright, cold light coming from our left. Their clothing has rips and holes. To our left, the man sits facing our right in profile. He has tousled gray hair and a short beard and moustache. Wrinkles line his forehead over bushy brows, and a deep crease connects his nose and the corner of the mouth we can see. He wears a brown cloak and vest, and dark blue pants are tucked into his boots. He holds a wide-brimmed hat in his lap, and a walking sick with a spike on the end rests between his knees. An empty wooden bowl is tucked in near one elbow. The woman sits in the center facing us with one hand holding the other, close to her body on her lap. A pointed staff wrapped with white wool, a spindle, is tucked into one elbow. Her bronze-colored hair is covered by a white cap. Her small, dark eyes gaze, unfocused, toward us. She has a wide face and the hint of a double chin. She wears a muted red jacket over a frayed white shirt. The red is echoed in the tall, narrow glass of liquid the boy holds near one knee, to our right. Light glints off his arctic-blue eyes as he gazes at the old man. Pale blue shadows make the skin around the boy’s delicate nose, eyes, and mouth look almost translucent. His full pink lips are closed. His ash-brown hair is choppily cut and also tousled. He holds a jug in one hand and the glass in the other. A pewter plate and spoon rest on the barrel, and the plate holds a mound of unidentifiable, peach-colored food. The young girl stands at a tall hearth on the left side of the room beyond the man and woman. She faces our left and looks down, her face warmed to rosy pink by the fire below. She wears a brown pinafore, and stands of brown hair escape from her cap. In the background to our right is an open door next to a table or wooden shelf holding a pot, at least one plate, and a ladle.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 37

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.6 x 64.7 cm (21 7/8 x 25 1/2 in.)
    framed: 59.1 x 71.8 x 7 cm (23 1/4 x 28 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.2.20

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

In France during the 18th century.[1] George Godolphin Osborne, 10th duke of Leeds [1862-1927], Hornby Castle, near Bedale, Yorkshire, by 1902;[2] by inheritance to his, John Francis Godolphin Osborne, 11th duke of Leeds [1901-1963], Hornby Castle; sold December 1945 to (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Paris, New York, and London);[3] sold December 1946 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The painting was engraved in reverse by Catherine Elise Lempeurer in the mid-18th century under the title Le Bénédicité flamant. In the catalogues for the 1910, 1934, and 1938 exhibitions in which it was included, the painting is listed as from the Duc d'Orleans collection, but no painting by Le Nain is recorded in that collection, unless it was given to another artist.
[2] Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures Belonging to the Duke of Leeds, London, 1902: 40, no. 201, as Flemish Interior by Le Nain. It is not known when the painting entered this collection; no mention of it was found in documents relating to the art collection in the estate papers of the Dukes of Leeds held by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds, England (see e-mails of 20 and 28 October 2008, from Kirsty McHugh, archivist, to Anne Halpern, in NGA curatorial files).
[3] During the preparation of the NGA systematic catalogue of its French paintings of the 15th to 18th centuries, Joseph Baillio of Wildenstein & Co. kindly provided the date when the company acquired the painting from the Duke of Leeds.
[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/35.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1910

  • The Brothers Le Nain, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1910, no. 13, repro., as A Flemish Interior.

1934

  • Le Nain, peintures, dessins, Petit Palais, Paris, 1934, no. 15 as Flemish Interior.

1938

  • 17th Century Art in Europe, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1938, no. 338, repro. as Peasant Interior.

1951

  • Wildenstein Jubilee Loan Exhibition, 1901-1951: Masterpieces from Museums and Private Collections, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1951, no. 14, repro.

1978

  • Les frères Le Nain, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1978-1979, no. 24, repro., as Intérieur paysan.

1982

  • France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, 1982, no. 49, repro., as Peasant Interior.

2003

  • Richelieu: Art and Power, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2002-2003, no. 160, repro.

2016

  • The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of 17th-Century France, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Musée du Louvre-Lens, Lens, France, 2016-2017, no. 42, repro.

Bibliography

1862

  • Champfleury. Les Frères Le Nain. Paris, 1862: 117

1902

  • Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures Belonging to...the Duke of Leeds. London, 1902: 40.

1933

  • Fierens, Paul. Les Le Nain. Paris, 1933: repro. LIV.

1934

  • Bulletin des Musées de France (July 1934): 129, repro.

  • Waterhouse, E.K. "A Le Nain Exhibition in Paris." The Burlington Magazine LXV (September 1934): 132.

1937

  • Watt, Alexander. "Notes from Paris." Apollo (June 1937): 349, repro.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 212, no. 94, repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 46, pl. 109.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 345, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 154, repro. pl. 145.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 316, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 75.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:294, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 65, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 192, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 267-268, fig. 247, as French Peasants in an Interior.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 75, pl. 62.

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "Les frères Le Nain: la part de Mathieu." Paragone 349-350 (1979): 70.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. "L'exposition Le Nain: une proposition." Revue de l'Art 43 (1979): 96.

1982

  • Cuzin, Jean-Pierre. "New York. French Seventeenth-Century Paintings from American Collections." The Burlington Magazine 124, no. 953 (August 1982): 530.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 323, no. 423, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 225, repro.

1986

  • Conisbee, Philip. Chardin. Oxford, 1986: 43, repro.

1993

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. Tout l'oeuvre peint des Le Nain. Paris, 1993: 89, no. 65, pl. XLVI, as Intérieur Paysan by Mathieu Le Nain.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 175, no. 138, color repro.

2005

  • Baillio, Joseph, et al. The Arts of France from François Ier to Napoléon Ier. A Centennial Celebration of Wildenstein's Presence in New York. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, 2005: 52, fig. 16, 71 (not in the exhibition).

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 71, 322-327, color repro.

Inscriptions

On stretcher bars: in pencil, twice, "Face Chest Center"; in chalk, "17111."

Wikidata ID

Q20177205

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