Provenance

Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc.

est. 1937

Explore selected works

See all 98 works of art
Pale beige, angular houses cluster at the center of the horizontal landscape painting. The hilly, rocky landscape around and below the houses is painted with cool blues and greens, and warm ivory and caramel brown beneath a pale blue sky. The artist applied the paint with regular, parallel, straight strokes.
Paul Cezanne, Houses in Provence: The Riaux Valley near L'Estaque, c. 1883, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1973.68.1

Houses in Provence: The Riaux Valley near L'Estaque

Paul Cezanne · c. 1883 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1973.68.1

Gilbert Stuart, Robert Liston, 1800, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1957.10.1

Robert Liston

Gilbert Stuart · 1800 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1957.10.1

The sculpture portrays two female figures in a dynamic and intertwined position. One figure appears seated with a flowing drape over her lower body, while the other figure is more upright, reaching towards the seated one. Both figures are depicted with elongated and graceful forms. They seem to be engaged in an interaction or gesture, conveying a sense of connection between them. The material of the sculpture appears to be light tan stone or plaster, with a textured surface. The figures are rendered in a style that emphasizes smooth, curvilinear lines and contours. The background features a pattern of small, spherical objects and linear details that frame the figures.
Elie Nadelman, Two Nudes, c. 1911, plaster, Gift of Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod, 1975.79.1

Two Nudes

Elie Nadelman · c. 1911 · plaster ·  Accession ID  1975.79.1

The sculpture depicts the head of a human figure with a serene expression and closed eyes. It is crafted from a material resembling stone or plaster, giving it a natural beige color. The head is placed atop a rectangular, textured pedestal that is also of a similar material and color. The surface showcases a rough, unfinished texture. Positioned at approximately the height of a viewer's face, the sculpture's human scale invites direct engagement.
Charles Despiau, Mlle Dominique Jeanès, 1925, terracotta, Gift of Angelika Wertheim Frink, 1969.10.2

Mlle Dominique Jeanès

Charles Despiau · 1925 · terracotta ·  Accession ID  1969.10.2

A cartoonish tooth-like form and a fork float against a roughly oval field in this abstracted wooden sculpture. Presumably the shirt front of the sculpture's title, the tooth-like form takes up the left half of the composition. It has a rounded top with two pointed root-like legs below, and has two dots like eyes near the top. The fork to our right points downward and the four tines are cut off by the bottom edge of the composition. The shirt front, dots, and fork are carved and painted nickel gray so they look like thick outlines in low relief. The background to our left and over the shirt front is black. The area between the shirt front and fork is dark gray, and the field to our right of the fork is silvery gray. The sculpture hangs on a white wall, and it casts a narrow shadow from the bottom edge.
Jean (Hans) Arp, Shirt Front and Fork, 1922, painted wood, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1983.3.1

Shirt Front and Fork

Jean (Hans) Arp · 1922 · painted wood ·  Accession ID  1983.3.1

The sculpture depicts a figure wearing ornate armor and a laurel wreath crown, seated atop a horse in a commanding stance. Both the rider and the horse have intricate detailing. The horse's tack is adorned with decorative elements. The sculpture is crafted from dark bronze. It is set upon a rectangular base on a block of dark, polished stone with greenish veining.
Antoine-Louis Barye, Charles VII the Victorious on Horseback, model c. 1844, cast 1860/1909, bronze, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1980.44.1

Charles VII the Victorious on Horseback

Antoine-Louis Barye · model c. 1844, cast 1860/1909 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1980.44.1

This painting shows a plucked chicken hanging upside down by one yellow leg from a piece of string. The chicken's bare skin is pale yellow with some areas of pale pink. Its tail and head are still intact, showing white plumage and a red crest. There are some small white feathers still connected to its skin, and a few scattered feathers float downward against the brown wooden panel background.
William Michael Harnett, Plucked Clean, 1882, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund, 1977), 2014.136.133

Plucked Clean

William Michael Harnett · 1882 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.133

We look across river at a bridge with a city skyline beyond in this stylized, horizontal landscape, which is painted entirely with broad, visible brushstrokes in vivid, saturated colors. The river spans nearly the width of the canvas, and the riverbank is lined to our left with a row of several buildings between us and the bridge. Those buildings are outlined with royal blue and filled in with mostly flat areas of color in coral pink, mint green, tangerine orange, and pinkish tan. Letters across the top of the building farthest from us reads “BREVER.” Eight boats are tied up at the foot of the buildings. The pointed hulls of three extend into the scene from the lower left corner, painted in marigold orange and outlined in cobalt blue. Five more boats, with rounded prows and hulls and painted with lapis blue and muted aqua, line up like a row of empty shoes. The bridge runs from behind the tallest building to our left across and off the canvas, and is painted with deep lapis blue with crimson-red Xes crisscrossing the span to suggest trestles. The front faces of the pilings below are also highlighted with red. The river fills most of the bottom half of the painting. The water to our left is painted as a field of coral pink with a few, short horizontal baby and cobalt-blue strokes, suggesting reflections of the boats and a bridge piling. A narrow band of kiwi green and sky blue lines the pink field to our right. Next to it, the water is painted as short, horizontal, disconnected strokes and dots mostly in bumblebee yellow with some strokes in bubblegum pink and pale burnt orange, all against the off white of the canvas below. The final zone, to our right, is more densely painted with short dashes in indigo, turquoise, and aqua blue. Beyond the bridge, the skyline is painted in silhouette with spiky spires to our left in mint green and a mass of shorter buildings in periwinkle blue to our right. Four clouds of pale yellow billow off the bridge in front of the skyline. The sky above is painted with short and long vertical strokes of butter yellow, rose pink, pale orange, and a few areas of watermelon pink. The artist signed the work with cobalt-blue paint near the lower left corner: “a derain.”
André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906, oil on canvas, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.3

Charing Cross Bridge, London

André Derain · 1906 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.76.3

About a dozen people walk and a few ride horses across a bridge spanning river that cuts through a sandy landscape in this horizontal painting. A few wisps of clouds drift across a vivid blue sky over the horizon, which comes halfway up the composition. The waterway winds from the lower left corner into the distance parallel to the left edge of the painting. A bank of shrubs and two tall palms lean toward the water from the left bank, and brown and cream-white buildings line both sides of the water to the horizon. People sit on the low wall of the bridge in the lower left corner, and a person leads a donkey laden with sacks toward us on the far side of the deck. The bridge is shaped like a capital T laid down, so the top crossbeam spans the river. The lower branch divides the river on our side of the bridge. Some rocks and a gnarled trunk lie across this strip of land. Farther up the river and to our left, a single person walks across a second bridge made up of planks supported by rocky pilings. That bridge meets the far bank near the remains of a building with pointed arches and a tower-like minaret. Verdant green canopies of a cluster of palm trees flare over this building. People who walk and ride across the bridge create a loose line that extends to a larger gathering beyond the building. The group gathers in the dense shade of a wide-canopied tree, which grows high over a brown wall. More rooflines, including a dome and another minaret, stack along the horizon beyond the tree. The people wear robes and turbans in bright white, aquamarine blue, brick red, and black. The artist signed the painting as if he had written his name on the face of a rock in the lower right corner, “JL GEROME.”
Jean-Léon Gérôme, View of Medinet El-Fayoum, c. 1868/1870, oil on wood, Chester Dale Fund, 2013.62.1

View of Medinet El-Fayoum

Jean-Léon Gérôme · c. 1868/1870 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2013.62.1

A young boy with pale skin, wearing a black suit with densely pattered gold trim and decoration, stands holding an open book in front of a brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, but he looks at us with large, slate-blue eyes. He has a round face, a wide nose, and his full, peach-colored lips are barely parted. Short blond hair falls in tousled bangs across his forehead. A tall, oyster-white collar flares up in a wide V along the sides of his neck. His hip-length, long-sleeved black jacket has gold trim and decoration down the open front, along the bottom hem, and at the cuffs. His pants have a high waist, meeting the buttons of the white shirt at his chest. There are two gold buttons on his pants near the waist, framed by his open jacket. Gold trim continues down the sides of his long pants and around the leg openings. He wears black, loafer-style shoes with gray or white stockings or socks. He is lit from our left so casts a shadow to our right, in the dark brown room in which he stands.
Francisco Goya, Victor Guye, 1810, oil on canvas, Gift of William Nelson Cromwell, 1956.11.1

Victor Guye

Francisco Goya · 1810 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.11.1

Bibliography

1970

  • Towner, Wesley. The Elegant Auctioners. New York, 1970.

1980

  • Herrmann, Frank. Sotheby's: Portrait of an Auction House. London, 1980.

1985

  • Faith, Nicholas. Sold: The Rise and Fall of the House of Sotheby. New York, 1985.