Provenance

George Washington Vanderbilt III

American, 1862 - 1914

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A tall, thin, pale-skinned young man stands in a dimly lit room, nearly filling the height of this portrait painting. He faces us with his body turned slightly to our left, and he wears a charcoal-gray suit and black shoes. A black bow tie and silver-gray shirt collar are visible above his buttoned jacket, and he holds what might be a riding crop in his elegant, long fingers. His short hair, moustache, eyebrows, and eyes are all chestnut brown. His hair is swept off his forehead and cut around the ears. Thick eyebrows frame his large eyes, and a handlebar moustache curves over full, peach-colored lips. He stands near the corner of a room. The brown floor seems tipped toward us, so the parchment-white baseboard runs behind the man at hip level. The wall to our left is stone gray, streaked with darker gray. The right wall blends with the dark brown of the floor, which is loosely painted with patches of sable brown. Much of the portrait is loosely painted, especially in the man’s hands, clothing, and the room around him.
James McNeill Whistler, George W. Vanderbilt, 1897/1903, oil on canvas, Gift of Edith Stuyvesant Gerry, 1959.3.3

George W. Vanderbilt

James McNeill Whistler · 1897/1903 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1959.3.3

A bearded man with light skin, wearing a black costume and holding a plumed hat, stands in front of mottled brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left but he turns to look off to our right from the corners of his dark brown eyes. He has heavy, furrowed brows and high cheekbones. His dark mustache curls up at either end over a full beard, and his wavy chestnut-brown hair is swept back from his forehead. His black jacket has puffed sleeves with narrow ruffles of white at his collar and cuffs, and a peek of the white shirt at his chest where the row of buttons are undone. His puffy pants gather at the thigh over black stockings, and he wears black slippers. He crosses his wrists in front of him, and he wears a gold ring with a square, scarlet-red stone on his right ring finger, to our left. In that hand, he also holds a black hat with a long, feathery plume that falls to knee level. A saber lies on the floor to our left near the man’s feet, with the grip and elaborately twisting guard facing us. The background lightens from coffee brown along the top edge to light beige along the lower edge of the composition. The portrait is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout, especially in the costume and background. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Manet.”
Edouard Manet, The Tragic Actor (Rouvière as Hamlet), 1866, oil on canvas, Gift of Edith Stuyvesant Gerry, 1959.3.1

The Tragic Actor (Rouvière as Hamlet)

Edouard Manet · 1866 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1959.3.1

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned man with a mustache stands with one hand on his hip and the other hand held up in this dark-toned, vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our right almost in profile, but he turns his face to us. He looks out with dark eyes and one eyebrow lifted. He has a straight nose, flushed cheeks, a tuft of hair under his pink lower lip, a wide mustache, and a narrow chin. His brown hair appears to be tousled but it blends into the sable-brown background, making details difficult to make out. The edge of a white collar and shirt front is tucked into a dark vest. The jacket, also coffee bean brown, seems to be pulled back behind the man’s right hand, which is planted on his hip. The left hand, farther from us, is held up, palm toward us, near his waist. The portrait is loosely painted and the dark tonalities of the brown paint make many details hard to discern. Three slightly darker brown spots near the center of the right edge create a butterfly form.
James McNeill Whistler, Gold and Brown: Self-Portrait, c. 1896-1898, oil on canvas, Gift of Edith Stuyvesant Gerry, 1959.3.2

Gold and Brown: Self-Portrait

James McNeill Whistler · c. 1896-1898 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1959.3.2