Provenance

Alphonse Oudry

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This painting shows three people sitting together. Two individuals on the left are women, likely nuns, with light skin, wearing black habits over tan head coverings and long-sleeved white robes. One of the women holds a book. The person on the right is an older man with light skin and a white beard, wearing a light red cloak over a long white robe. He holds a book and gestures towards the women. In the background on the left, there is a tan cityscape with buildings and a cloudy sky. On the right is a dark wall with a red hat hanging behind the man. The top of the painting is curved.
Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish 17th Century, Saint Jerome with Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium, c. 1640/1650, oil on fabric, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.88

Saint Jerome with Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium

Francisco de Zurbarán, Spanish 17th Century · c. 1640/1650 · oil on fabric ·  Accession ID  1952.5.88

A light-skinned man wearing a voluminous, ocean-blue, hooded robe sits at a cloth-draped writing table and looks up, fingers splayed over an open book and a pen held in his other hand, in this vertical painting. The man and desk take up most of the composition, which has an arched top. The man’s shoulders and body are angled to our right, and he looks off in that direction in profile. His balding head is rimmed with white hair curving over the large ear we can see, and he has a trimmed white and gray beard and mustache. His prominent nose is pointed, and his lips are closed. Light glints off the robe he wears so it shimmers in shades of topaz, aquamarine, and midnight blue. Voluminous white sleeves emerge under the mantle and are edged with narrow lace cuffs. His left hand, to our right, rests on an open book, which is propped against one or two other tomes. Near the edge of the table, two quills stand in the corners of a lidded inkwell, and a round, silver blotter, shaped like an upside-down chalice, and a lidded silver box sit nearby. The man’s chair has a tall post next to his shoulder to our left with a teardrop-shaped, gold finial. A second post, near his wrist, is lower and topped with a gold orb. The chair is draped in the same deep, raspberry-pink of the square table at which he sits. The tablecloth is edged with a wide band of gold along the bottom, and filigree-like gold decorations line the seams or folds at the corners. Brushstrokes are visible in many areas, especially in the colorfully charged blue and pink fabric. Beyond the man, to our right, a statuette of a person wearing a long, white robe over a white dress holds a baby. The clothing is edged with gold, and she wears a sphere-like gold crown. The baby also wears white and holds up one hand. The statuette stands on a platform supported by S-shaped corbels, and could have a projecting, squared awning over the top. This area is more loosely painted so some details are difficult to make out. In the background to our left, a wooden door stands open next to a dark space just behind the man’s head, so his profile is picked out against the shadow. The floor beneath is earth brown.
El Greco, Saint Ildefonso, c. 1603/1614, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.83

Saint Ildefonso

El Greco · c. 1603/1614 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.83

Bibliography

1869

  • sale, (Catalogue de tableaux anciens des écoles italienne, espagnole, hollandaise et flamande, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16-17 April 1869)

1876

  • sale, (Catalogue des tableaux anciens et d'une fresque de Raphael dépendant des successions Oudry, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 April 1876)