Provenance

comte François-Louis-Joseph Laborde de Méréville

French, died 1801

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A young woman sleeps with her cheek resting on the back of one hand next to a woman holding a nude baby and two winged angels in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin and they nearly fill the composition. The sleeping woman, Saint Catherine, rests her elbow on a stone table covered by a golden yellow cloth, which also wraps around her shoulders. Her knees are angled to our right and her face tips onto her hand to our left. Her curly, light brown hair is pulled back. She has delicately arching eyebrows, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her pale, olive-green, floor-length dress is tied at the waist with a mauve-purple sash. She wears a gold ring with a gray stone on the third finger of her left hand, which rests in her lap. To our right, the second woman, Mary, leans over Saint Catherine. Mary’s head is angled to our left, toward the sleeping saint, and she looks to our right, down past the baby. Mary’s complexion is has a faint gray cast, and her brown hair is covered by a white cloth, which is surrounded by a halo of light. A dark garment covers her shoulders over a scarlet-red dress. The baby sits on Mary’s lap with his body facing our left, toward Saint Catherine. He leans our way and looks at us with dark eyes. Light catches his brown curls and he has chubby cheeks, arms, and legs. Along the bottom edge of the canvas, a puff of gray cloud near the lower right corner seems to support Mary’s feet. A curving, charoal-gray spike in the lower left corner of the painting is partially covered by the yellow drapery. Behind Saint Catherine and over her head, next to Mary, are two winged angels with dark blond, curly hair. The angel closer to us rests one hand on the pine-green pillow behind Saint Catherine’s head and turns to look past Mary in profile, lips parted. The angel behind looks down with hands together in prayer. Light falls across the scene from our right. The upper right corner behind Mary is filled with brick-red clouds that, upon closer examination, are filled with faces looking onto the scene.
Lodovico Carracci, The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1593, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.59

The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Lodovico Carracci · c. 1593 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.59

Shown from the hips up, a woman with pale skin, wearing a sapphire-blue gown, looks over her left shoulder at us in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our left in profile, and she looks at us from the corners of her large, hooded, gray eyes. She has an oval face with a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and her full, pink lips are closed. Wisps of brown hair fall across her forehead, and her face and neck are framed by a cloud of soft curls tied with a royal-blue bow over the ear on the side we can see. Around her neck is a cream-white pearl choker necklace. Her low-cut bodice is lined with transparent parchment-white fabric, which she holds at her chest with her right hand, farther from us. We see one blousy sleeve of her blue, satin dress, and the sleeve is tied at the elbow. Equally blousy white sleeves cover her forearms. With her left hand, closer to us, she holds a wreath of orange, pale blue, deep pink, and white flowers down by her waist. She is lit from the upper left, and the background behind her is dark in shadow. A patterned curtain hangs along the left edge of the painting.
Sébastien Bourdon, Countess Ebba Sparre, 1652/1653, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.34

Countess Ebba Sparre

Sébastien Bourdon · 1652/1653 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.34

Bibliography

1873

  • Larousse, Pierre. La grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle. 19 vol. Paris, 1873:10:11