Arthur Sachs

American, 1880 - 1975

Explore Selected Works

A woman with light skin sits facing us across a marble-topped table in a café in this vertical painting. Her body is angled slightly to our right, and she rests her right elbow, on our left, on the table. She leans her right cheek onto the back of her right hand as she gazes into the distance. She holds a cigarette in her other hand, which rests on the tabletop. Her pale pink dress has long sleeves with ruffles at the cuffs, and buttons down the front of the skirt can be seen under the table. A lace bow or ruffles cascade down at her neck. Straw-colored hair peeks out under a black hat encircled with a wide band of lace. A short, stemmed glass sitting on the table in front of her holds a small, round piece of fruit surrounded by caramel-colored liquid. The white marble tabletop is streaked with gray. The burgundy, patterned banquette she sits on takes up the bottom half of the composition, and wood paneling around a slate-gray metal grate fills the top half. Loose brushstrokes are visible throughout. The artist signed the work as if he had written his name on the surface of the table, near the front edge to our left, "Manet."
Edouard Manet, Plum Brandy, c. 1877, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1971.85.1

Plum Brandy

Edouard Manet · c. 1877 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1971.85.1

Neroccio de' Landi, Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund, c. 1490/1495, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.17

Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Sigismund

Neroccio de' Landi · c. 1490/1495 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.17

Jean Perréal, A Knight of the Golden Fleece, c. 1495, oil on European walnut, Gift of Arthur Sachs, 1964.16.1

A Knight of the Golden Fleece

Jean Perréal · c. 1495 · oil on European walnut ·  Accession ID  1964.16.1

A man stands at a coastline with his back to us, gesturing toward a group of seven men sailing on the rolling sea in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale, peach skin. The man standing near us to our left wears a light blue tunic under a shell-pink garment that drapes around his hips and falls to his ankles. A thin gold halo encircles his head over curly brown, shoulder-length hair. Green land extends along the foreground close to us, and trees rise to either side. It is unclear whether the man stands on the land or on the water with bare feet. His body is angled away from us and to our right as he looks and gestures with one arm raised toward the boat on the water beyond. Choppy waves and swirling, dense clouds ranging from topaz to navy blue dominate the landscape. Each of the seven men in the sailboat does something different. For instance, one leans over the edge to grasp a fishing net while another pulls a rope for the sail. Two of the men have white halos. One stands at the back of the boat looking into the far distance and the other begins to step onto the surface of the water.
Anonymous Artist, Lambert Sustris, Christ at the Sea of Galilee, c. 1570s, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.27

Christ at the Sea of Galilee

Anonymous Artist, Lambert Sustris · c. 1570s · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.27

Two crowds made up of dozens of men each clash on the dirt floor of an outdoor arena in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted and most details are indistinct. Many of the men wear black caps and have peach or brown-colored faces. The group to our left surges near a flagpole. The group to our right eddies around a dark brown bull that stamps front feet firmly on the ground. Both groups are enlivened by swirls of buttercup yellow, scarlet red, powder blue, and bright white. One man wearing white crouches, bare bottomed, on the ground in front of the bull. More people gathered on the far side of the arena and beyond its walls pare painted with strokes and dabs of pearl white, rust red, golden brown, dark gray, ochre yellow, and black.
Eugenio Lucas Villamil, The Bullfight, c. 1890/1900, oil on canvas, Gift of Arthur Sachs, 1954.10.1

The Bullfight

Eugenio Lucas Villamil · c. 1890/1900 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1954.10.1

Shown from the waist up, a man sits facing us on the far side of a ledge or counter looking down at an open book in this loosely painted, vertical portrait. The man’s pale skin is flushed pink. He leans both forearms onto the ledge so his shoulders hunch forward. His head tips slightly to our left, and he reads with gathered, dark brows. He has a round-tipped nose and full, bushy beard. His black, wavy hair and beard are touched with lighter shades of bronze, especially at the temples. He holds a white pipe to his lips with one hand, and tendrils of smoke curl from the burning embers. He wears a black coat, and a slip of white cuff is visible on the hand we see. The other hand is tucked behind the first. The pages of the book are bright white, and the ledge surface is painted with strokes of celery green and ochre yellow. A swirling black form in the lower left corner of the painting is difficult to interpret. The background is painted with loose brushstrokes in shades of sky and cobalt blue and charcoal gray. The artist signed the painting near the lower left corner, “A. Renoir.”
Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, 1872, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.35

Claude Monet

Auguste Renoir · 1872 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.35

Bibliography

1946

  • Bouchage, Luc. "Louvre to California. Today's Collectors: Arthur Sachs," Art News, 45 (October 1946): 32-35, 74-77.

  • Howe, Thomas Carr. "The Arthur Sachs Collection." Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. 4, no. 7 (November 1946): 59-63.

1975

  • Obituary, The New York Times, 8 March 1975, 28:4.