Potter and Bertha Palmer

he: 1826 -1902; she: 1849 - 1918

Explore Selected Works

Between us and a river lined with buildings on the far bank in the distance, tall willow trees nearly span the height of this horizontal landscape. The scene is loosely painted, and the color palette is almost completely dominated by cool tones of spring, sage, celery, and kelly green, and steel and sea blue. The grasses near us are painted with diagonal strokes that alternate direction and color as they move back toward the river. Golden yellow daubs in the lower right suggest blooms, and leaves on the trees are created with thin, upward strokes and dabs along slender branches. The trees reach high into a sky filled with sweeps of beige, blush pink, and spring green layered over pale blue. The river is a lavender gray, and the low, tightly clustered buildings are painted with a mix of ochre, peach, and denim blue. The artist has signed and dated the work in the lower right corner, though the final digit is illegible: “Claude Monet 188.”
Claude Monet, The Willows, 1880, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Edward C. and Mary Walker Collection), 2015.19.65

The Willows

Claude Monet · 1880 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.65

Shown from the hips up, a mostly nude woman with pale skin and dark hair pulled up into a loose bun sits with her back to us in this vertical pastel. Touches of sunshine yellow, scarlet red, and black suggest a pattern on the spring green cloth loosely encircling her hips along the bottom edge of the paper. She seems to hold her hands in front of her body so her elbows are bent and she looks down, perhaps at something in her lap. Her black hair is flecked with white to suggest glinting light. The background is filled with a golden yellow field interspersed with hazy turquoise, tomato red, sky blue, and black shapes. It is loosely rendered with pastel to create a blurry effect. Eventually it becomes evident that it is a Japanese screen with clusters of people, landscape, and perhaps a courtyard. The artist signed the work with red letters near the woman’s right hip: “Wm M Chase.”
William Merritt Chase, Study of Flesh Color and Gold, 1888, pastel on paper coated with mauve-gray grit (on strainer), Gift of Raymond J. and Margaret Horowitz, 2007.94.2

Study of Flesh Color and Gold

William Merritt Chase · 1888 · pastel on paper coated with mauve-gray grit (on strainer) ·  Accession ID  2007.94.2