Provenance

Galerie van Diemen & Co.

Van Diemen & Co.
Van Diemen Gallery
Van Diemen-Margraf Gallery

active c. 1920 - 1960

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See all 12 works of art
This painting shows the upper half of a woman and a standing infant. The woman stands behind a table while the infant stands on one leg on top of it. She holds the child steady with one arm. The woman has fair skin, long brown hair, and a serene expression as she looks down at the child. She wears a colorful dress with wide sleeves in shades of bright red, teal, and orange. With her other hand, she holds a bunch of green grapes towards the child. The unclothed infant has light skin and light hair, and it stands comfortably with one foot on the ground and the other resting on its knee, holding an apple in one hand and lifting a grape to its mouth in the other. The background is dark, and on the gray table at the bottom of the painting there is a glass of yellow liquid and another apple.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Madonna and Child, probably c. 1535 or after, oil on panel, Gift of Adolph Caspar Miller, 1953.3.1

Madonna and Child

Lucas Cranach the Elder · probably c. 1535 or after · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1953.3.1

A man and woman are surrounded by six pudgy children, some with wings, against a deep landscape in this square painting. At the center of the composition, the man, Bacchus, sits astride a wine barrel, which is about half his height. Bacchus has tanned, peachy skin, and is nude except for a claret-purple cloth draped across his groin. He wears a crown of grapevines with gold and purple fruit and palm-sized leaves. A staff topped with grapevines leans across one splayed leg, and he holds a shallow bowl in his left hand, to our right. With his other hand, he lifts a delicate gold circlet lined with tiny, bright stars over the woman, Ariadne. He smiles down at her as she reclines next to the barrel, to our left. Ariadne has ash-white, pale skin with flushed cheeks. She looks away from Bacchus, up and to our left, with large brown eyes and her full lips closed. She leans on one elbow near the barrel so her legs extend to our left. A few stems of wheat are tucked into her blond hair. She is nude except for a gold-colored cloth over her groin and a cameo on a gold band around her upper arm. She holds flowers and more wheat in the crook of her elbow, which rests near a tall urn, and touches a grapevine and bunch of grapes that drape over the urn with the other hand. Two putto, one with wings visible, hover behind her right shoulder, to our left. Another child-like putto drinks wine from a rope-wrapped bottle behind Bacchus’s barrel, to our right. A putto holds a round tray and another stands astride a cheetah, who lies in front of the barrel. This final putto holds up a vine with golden grapes and more grapevines are next to the tray. We are separated from the scene by painted architectural features meant to resemble carved white stone. The cheetah’s backside dips over a step that parallels the bottom edge of the canvas. Imaginary creatures in the lower corners have the bodies of large cats, chests with women’s breasts, long necks, curling ears, and long-snouted dog’s faces. Tall, brown, leaf-like forms rising along each side of the painting are wrapped with gold ribbons. Stone molding curls into the scene from the upper corners like parentheses, and the innermost scrolling ends meet at the top center. One more putto, also with wings, leans against the volute to our left, holding up flowers with both hands. Most of the putti have pale or rosy skin and dark blond hair, except for the one standing over the cheetah, who has brown skin and dark brown hair. Tucked into the scene in the lower left, just past the imaginary creature there, another pale-skinned person with a long nose, pointed chin, and the suggestion of jowls is shown from the waist up, looking toward Ariadne. This person has short dark hair and wears a black garment and a square hat in the shape of a white stone castle. A dark green hill rises behind this person, and a satyr, a man with goat’s legs and horns, walks alongside a donkey on which another pale-skinned child rides. There are white buildings with brown roofs in the distance in front of rocky, powder-blue mountains along the horizon. Puffy white clouds tower against the ice-blue sky above.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Bacchus and Ariadne, c. 1743/1745, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.36

Bacchus and Ariadne

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · c. 1743/1745 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.36

Three women and five men play cards around a round table covered with piles of gold coins in this square painting. The people all have pale skin. The women have round faces, close-set, small eyes, delicate noses and lips, and cleft chins. They wear dresses with tight bodices and long sleeves, and cloth head coverings. The men have prominent, bumped noses, furrowed brows, and lines around their eyes. They wear hats and voluminous robes and coats in shades of ruby red, moss green, golden brown, and black. Two women and two men play cards, and each has a second person behind them or at their shoulders. The woman along the left edge of the painting wears gloves, and she looks out at us. She points at the table or at the space between her and another card player. She holds her cards up so the six of hearts at the front is visible in front of a face card of hearts and a card with spades. A clean-shaven man standing behind her stoops and drapes his arms across her shoulders, one hand limp and gesturing with a three and the other hand cupping the woman’s cards. He looks across the table. The next player is also a woman, who rests one wrist on her face-down cards on the table. She counts out coins with her other hand, and the bearded man behind her stands with one hand tucked into the opening of his robe, leaning back as he looks across the table. Next, a clean-shaven man holds three cards up to his chest as he turns to look to our left, his brows gathered and lips parted. A woman stands between these two players with a hand draped over each of their shoulders. She peers down at the man’s cards and makes a number two with that hand. Her other loose fist rests on the shoulder of the second female card player. The final pair, along the right edge of the painting, are two men. The card player holds his cards so we see the ace of spades at the front. He points at a row of coins or toward the gap left between him and the woman to our left. He leans forward and looks intently, chin jutted out, at the man with his hand tucked into his robe. A man with a long gray beard sits just over the fourth player’s shoulder and appears to look across the scene absently with heavy-lidded eyes. The round table is covered in a teal-blue cloth. A rectangular sideboard in the back left of the room is covered with a white cloth and holds a vase of white flowers, a vessel, a wooden basket, and a piece of fruit. The wall behind this is gray along the top and wood-paneled below. An alcove in the wall to the right holds two vessels, a round gold-colored, plum-sized object, and another basket. A pale yellow curtain is pulled to the right side of that alcove.
Anonymous Artist, The Card Players, probably c. 1550/1599, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.27

The Card Players

Anonymous Artist · probably c. 1550/1599 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.27

A light-skinned woman wearing a lapis-blue dress sits on a throne, holding a nearly naked pale-skinned baby in this vertical painting. The woman’s long-sleeved dress falls in lively folds as it pools around her legs and feet. Curling tendrils frame her face while the rest of her brown hair is pulled back beneath a cloth headdress. Her body is angled to our left and she looks off just over our left shoulder. She supports the baby who straddles the right arm of the chair and balances on the toes of his right foot. With her right hand, the woman holds a piece of fruit, perhaps a small apple, up by the baby’s mouth. The throne sits low to the ground and is ornately carved and gilded with scrolling arms and intricate tracery up the back around the crimson-red, upholstered center. They sit in a room with a patterned tile floor, thick, brown stone walls, and a window with a view onto other buildings and people in the upper left corner. Three more apples rest on ledges near the window. A thick book lies open in the bottom right corner.
Jan Gossaert, Madonna and Child, c. 1532, oil on panel, Gift of Grace Vogel Aldworth in memory of her grandparents Ralph and Mary Booth, 1981.87.1

Madonna and Child

Jan Gossaert · c. 1532 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1981.87.1

A pale-skinned, balding man with a fringe of white hair and a long, wispy gray beard kneels with his fingers intertwined in prayer in a shadowy grotto-like space in this vertical painting. He faces our right in profile, and his eyes look up at a crucifix propped against several woven baskets leaning against a moss-covered, gnarled tree. His hands rest on the open pages of a large book at the base of the crucifix. He wears a dark tawny-brown robe with a voluminous hood, and a string of thick rosary beads hanging from his waist ends with a tiny skull and a cross. A brick archway frames him, and another archway is seen through the opening. An unlit lantern hangs from the tree over the crucifix. The book, baskets, and crucifix along with a skull and hourglass sit on a rock covered by a cloth. An overturned pottery jug, a water jug, and a horse’s skull rest among a tall thistle plant and grass at the foot of the rock, in the lower right corner of the panel.
Gerrit Dou, The Hermit, 1670, oil on oak panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.8

The Hermit

Gerrit Dou · 1670 · oil on oak panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.8

Umbrian 16th Century, Head of a Woman, c. 1510/1520, oil on poplar panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.24

Head of a Woman

Umbrian 16th Century · c. 1510/1520 · oil on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.24

We float high above the land, looking across rolling hills toward a shimmering, aquamarine-blue body of water to our left and towns peppered along taller mountains to our right, beneath an incoming storm in this horizontal painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting. Only upon closer inspection does one discover dozens of tiny men and women scattered in groups or individually across the landscape. Closest to us but still tiny in scale, at the lower center, a man wearing a scarlet-red tunic and dark pants chops down a tree as another man wearing navy blue walks away from us. A man snoozes on the grass nearby and another squats in the protection of a hollowed out tree, pants down, in the lower left corner of the painting. The rolling, light brown hills angle away from us to our left. Atop a hill to our left, a tall frame holds up two flaming wheels. At its foot, a person wearing robes kneels and looks up, arms raised, at the wheel, which is on fire. Three people, one wearing armor, lie nearby and others run away. A structure on a rocky outcropping nearby is also on fire, and black smoke billows skyward. In the harbor below, at the center of the composition, two ships tip wildly in the water. People walk and work in pairs and groups through the rest of the landscape, including a bustle of activity around a wooden ship being built to our right. Travelers on foot and on horseback follow a winding road along the harbor toward a castle on the far promontory. Beyond that lies a ship-filled port town, and, across a drawbridge on at the far right, a walled city in the hazy distance. Clouds rolling across the left half of the painting are charcoal gray, almost black. To our right, patches of bright blue sky peek through a thin screen of white clouds.
Antwerp 16th Century, Matthys Cock, The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, c. 1540, oil on plywood transferred from panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.18

The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine

Antwerp 16th Century, Matthys Cock · c. 1540 · oil on plywood transferred from panel ·  Accession ID  1952.2.18

The image shows a woman and two children. The woman is seated, leaning slightly forward, with closed eyes and a serene expression. She has brown hair and wears a dark green robe over a brown dress, with a veil partially covering her hair. One child sits on her lap, while the other child sits beside her, holding a small branch. The children have curly brown hair and are unclothed. The background is a warm golden-brown tone.
Anonymous Artist, Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John, c. 1510, oil on panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.5

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John

Anonymous Artist · c. 1510 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.5

A woman wearing a pale yellow silk dress sits playing a lute in front of a table while a man, wearing a black suit and hat, stands behind her in this vertical painting. Both have light skin. The woman sits facing our right in profile as she looks at pages of sheet music propped on a wooden tabletop stand on the table in front of her. Her light brown hair is pulled back in a braid looped into a bun, and a few curly tendrils fall alongside her ears. She has a pointed nose, full cheeks, and a receding chin beneath closed lips. Light gleams off her pale, golden yellow jacket and skirt. The jacket has elbow-length sleeves and is lined with white fur, and her long skirt has a band of deep gold embroidery and possibly beading down the front and along the bottom hem. She rests one foot on a low wooden box, and the other is covered by her skirt. She sits in a straight-backed chair with a wine-red, upholstered back. The table in front of her, to our right, is covered with a burgundy-red cloth. Near the music stand are a small book with a brown cover, a silver, oval-shaped box, a silver candlestick holding a white, unlit candle, and a bunched up white cloth. Behind her, the man stands with his left hand, on our right, lifted over the sheet music. He tips his head forward to look down at the woman or her lute. He has thick, shoulder-length, wavy brown hair and a goatee. He wears a tall, brimmed, black hat, and there are ruffles of white fabric at his neck and the cuffs of his long sleeves. The room has a brown floor and smoke-gray walls. A door opens a little into the room to our left, behind the pair.
Anonymous Artist, The Music Lesson, c. 1670, oil on canvas, Timken Collection, 1960.6.10

The Music Lesson

Anonymous Artist · c. 1670 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1960.6.10

Shown from the chest up with his body and head facing us, a pale-skinned young man cuts his light-brown eyes sharply to our right in this vertical portrait painting. His slightly wild, copper-brown hair puffs around his ears and tendrils curl on his forehead. His cheeks are flushed vivid pink. His full, pink lips are closed, and he has a cleft in his rounded chin. Some darker strokes around his mouth could be a goatee. He is lit from our right, and light shines brightly on a sliver of white at the neckline of his coffee bean-brown, high-necked garment. His clothing and hair blend into the dark brown background. Brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the man’s face and hair. Some areas of the canvas appear thinly painted or abraded; this is especially noticeable in a lighter area at the bottom left corner.
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Head of a Young Man, c. 1617/1618, oil on paper on panel, Gift of Adolph Caspar Miller, 1953.3.2

Head of a Young Man

Sir Anthony van Dyck · c. 1617/1618 · oil on paper on panel ·  Accession ID  1953.3.2

Bibliography

1990

  • A Selection of Russian Avant-Garde Works, formerly the property of Kurt Benedikt, co-owner of the Galerie van Diemen, Berlin. (Christies, London, 5 April 1990).