Provenance

Mrs. Kurt Riezler

German, 1885 - 1952

Explore selected works

A golden yellow melon painted with thick strokes of straw and butter yellow with touches of camel brown sits at the center of a wooden table with a blue top in this almost square still life painting. The sage-green stem droops over the left side and the whole melon leans slightly to our left. The table fills the lower half of the painting, and its top is painted with visible strokes of marine blue, blue gray, and white. The background is caramel brown painted thinly in areas with a darker shade of brown. The artist signed in lower right, “Manet.”
Edouard Manet, The Melon, c. 1880, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.29

The Melon

Edouard Manet · c. 1880 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.29

A pale-skinned young man with a carrot-red beard and hair faces us, straddling a green chair in a sunny outdoor setting in this vertical painting. The scene is loosely painted so his features are indistinct. His eyes are painted as pale blue dots, and he looks out at us. His chair unfolds into an X shape, with interlacing slats to make the seat. He leans forward to rest his hands on one side of the chair, and his legs are spread wide. He wears a marine-blue jacket over a white shirt, sage-green trousers streaked with gray, and black shoes. A soft blue V-shape at the neck suggests a neckerchief. Behind him, a half wall is topped by a trellis. The wall is painted in muted tones of pale laurel green while the trellis is painted with crisscrossed strokes of pine green. Daubs of emerald, pine, and forest green suggest vines and leaves, and flicks of orange, gold, and blue could be flowers. The ground beneath the man is pale peach scattered with thin scribbles and patches of fog blue. The painting is inscribed with “E 72.” in the lower right.
Edouard Manet, George Moore in the Artist's Garden, c. 1879, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2006.128.24

George Moore in the Artist's Garden

Edouard Manet · c. 1879 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2006.128.24