Alfred Charles de Rothschild

1842 - 1918

Explore Selected Works

A nude woman and three small, winged children gather among bushes and lush vegetation at the edge of a clear pool in this vertical painting. All four have pale skin and blond hair. The children are pudgy with baby-like proportions and have short gray and blue wings. The woman half reclines on swaths of white, pale pink, and peacock-blue fabric draped across the bushes or the ground. She leans her torso to our left and leans toward that elbow, which is propped up on the fabric. The toes of her right foot, on our left, brush the ground near the water, and her other leg is angled to continue the diagonal created by her elbow and torso. Two white doves nestle by her lower foot. Her ash-blond hair is bound up with pearls, and she has rosy cheeks, pink bow lips, and smooth skin. She reaches across her body and down to our left to touch a nearly nude young boy. He wears a butter-yellow garment pulled up around his chest, perhaps by the woman. A quiver of arrows hangs from a blue ribbon at his side, and he raises his hands before him, toward the woman's arm. To our right, one of the other children reclines on the pink and blue drapery and faces the woman in profile. The third child leans forward from the bushes behind the reclining child. The bushes and trees of the lush forest around the figures creates a V-shape with the people at the center. Vibrant blue sky fills the upper left quarter of the painting.
François Boucher, The Bath of Venus, 1751, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1943.7.2

The Bath of Venus

François Boucher · 1751 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.7.2

Several people sit, stand, or stroll along a dirt road that winds from the lower left corner of this horizontal landscape painting into the distance, past trees and cottages under a vivid blue sky. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the canvas, and the cloud studded, azure-blue sky fills the space above. Sunlight filtered through puffy white and steel-gray clouds illuminates the scene from the upper right, creating patches of light and shadow throughout. The road meanders through the center of the composition and is lined with dark and sage-green shrubs, scrubby growth, and gnarled, crooked trees. Closest to us and to our left, two tan cottages are tucked into deep shade created by a grove of several tall trees. The cottages have steeply pitched roofs and windows flanked by gray or brick-red shutters. Three people sit and stand near the path outside the closest building. A short distance to our right, a man sitting on a fallen log carries walking stick and a bundle on his back. His body faces us but his head is turned to our right to gaze toward the man and woman about to stroll past him, headed in our direction. The woman wears a black dress over a white skirt, and a white head covering and shawl. The man wears a brimmed hat with a red decoration, a brown coat with gold buttons down the front and a wide white collar, and heeled shoes. Beyond them, the road curves to our left around a small pond in front of the second cottage. Two people crouch to set a toy sailboat afloat by the edge of the pond, and a brown dog sniffs the ground nearby. Two more people stand talking at the doorway to the second cottage and another dog leaps up at the half-door. Further along the road, the light becomes stronger, illuminating a horse, rider, and another person walking alongside the horse. The road continues to curve around a butter-yellow cottage nestled in a grove of trees on the right. A sunny field is visible in the far distance.
Meindert Hobbema, A View on a High Road, 1665, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.62

A View on a High Road

Meindert Hobbema · 1665 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.62

We look across a dirt road or path at a tall, brick wall flanking an ornamented, stone gateway with a white, marble manor house in the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Atop a low hill, the sunlit manor is outlined against a vivid, light blue sky with silvery-gray, fluffy clouds, which fills the top two-thirds of the composition. Statues line the gray, tiled roofline along the central section of the house, and more statues stand in the grassy lawn to either side. Closer to us, the gateway and people around it are cast into shadow. The arched gate is flanked by flat columns and is topped with a triangular pediment filled with relief sculpture of people and ornamental scrolls. A ramp leads up to the opening of the gate. Two men passing under the arch have long, brown hair and wear brimmed hats, long coats, breeches tied at the knee, and stockings. The man in front carries a walking stick. A woman wearing a white head covering and long, dark dress, carries a baby tied to her back and holds her hand out toward the men. Near the men, three brown dogs walk as one raises a leg against the gate, and a fourth sniffs at the side of the ramp where it meets the ground. The red brick wall is topped with a balustrade. To our left of the gate and on the far side of the wall, two men lean on the balustrade, angled in toward each other as if in conversation, near a fountain with a sculpted woman on an ornamental urn. Below them, at the foot of the brick wall, a man sits on a cracked piece of marble sculpted with ornamental designs in low relief. The man wears a royal-blue suit with golden yellow stockings and a tan, brimmed hat. He leans forward to touch the collar of a long-legged, slender dog while four other dogs stand, sit, and lie down nearby. To our right, the roofline of a large, red brick building is seen over the tops of a grove of trees on the far side of the wall. The painting style throughout is detailed and precise, so one could conceivably count the individual bricks in the wall, for instance.
Jan van der Heyden, An Architectural Fantasy, c. 1670, oil on oak panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1968.13.1

An Architectural Fantasy

Jan van der Heyden · c. 1670 · oil on oak panel ·  Accession ID  1968.13.1

Shown from the shoulders up, a clean-shaven, pale-skinned man with shoulder-length brown hair and dressed in black fills this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and his shoulders extend off both sides of the composition. He looks off to our left with brown eyes under thin brows. He has a long, slightly bumped nose and the hint of a five-o-clock shadow around his pale pink lips, which are closed. His brimless black cap nearly touches the top edge of the composition. His wavy hair is cut into bangs across his forehead and is feathered down each side of his face to meet the longer hair at the back. He has a high-necked, ink-black garment lined with white across his neck. Two bands of white clouds span the azure-blue sky behind him. A stone ledge in front of the man, across the bottom of composition, is painted to look like it had been carved with the artist’s name: “IOANNES BELLINVS.” Two numbers are painted in the lower corners, with “98” to the left and “44” to the right.
Giovanni Bellini, Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, c. 1500, oil on panel transferred to panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.254

Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1500 · oil on panel transferred to panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.254

A woman stands drinking from a tall glass as two men sit at a table in a courtyard enclosed by wood paneling and brick buildings in this vertical painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The men, table, and woman take up the lower left quadrant of the composition. Both men wear broad-brimmed, black hats. The man closer to us, on our side of the table, faces our right in profile and holds a long white, clay pipe to his lips. He wears an ink-black jacket and tan leggings. A white stocking hangs down in a wide cuff from his knee on the leg we can see. A dove-gray cape is draped across his lap and a brown coat with gold-colored buttons is slung over a railing behind his back. Across the table, a bearded man wears a shining armor breastplate over a brown shirt. He looks up at the woman and smiles, holding a blue and white tankard with the lid flipped open in one hand. Another pipe and piece of paper sit on the narrow table between the men. The woman stands to one side of the table, facing our left in profile and the toe of her shoe touching or nearly brushing the black shoe of the man closer to us. Her brown hair is covered by a white cap, and she wears a tan-colored jacket, a long, crimson-red skirt, and an ultramarine-blue apron. Across the courtyard, in the lower right corner of the painting, a young girl also wears a white cap and blue apron but with a slate-gray shirt and laurel-green skirt. She approaches the table. A glowing ember is visible inside the ceramic brown dish she holds in both hands. The slightly uneven floor is paved with long, pale yellow bricks. A building rises to our right, a red shutter opening out from a window on the ground level. The other, closed shutter is painted with triangles of black, white, and gray. A half-wall of red brick across from us surrounds an open door, through which are stairs and a tree trunk. More trees rise above the top of that wall. Horizontal paneling encloses the courtyard to our left, behind the men. A church steeple in the distance is silhouetted against the sky over the paneling. A few wispy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky above.
Pieter de Hooch, A Dutch Courtyard, 1658/1660, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.56

A Dutch Courtyard

Pieter de Hooch · 1658/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.56

Both dressed in white, a little boy leans onto the lap of a woman sitting in front of a smooth, sunlit boulder with a landscape to the right in this vertical portrait painting. Both people have pale skin with rosy cheeks. To our left, the woman sits with her body facing our right. Her round face also tips to our right, and she looks at us with gray eyes. She has an upturned nose and her full, pink lips are closed in a slight smile. Her long legs are crossed at the ankles, and dark gray slippers peek out from under the long hem. She wears a diaphanous, eggshell-white gown gathered under her bust. The short sleeves of the dress are puffy over sheer sleeves that extend to her wrists. A sheer veil is tied over her brown hair with a gray ribbon falls over her shoulders. She wears coral-red beaded necklace and drop earrings. Her hands rest in her lap and intertwine with the little boy’s hands. He stands behind her and leans onto her knees with both elbows. His round face is framed by a cap of honey-brown hair, and he looks at us with big, lapis-blue eyes. The boy has a small nose and bow-shaped lips. He wears a flax-yellow and mist-gray short sleeved garment with a bow in the back. Light falls on the pair from our left, and throws some of the foliage surrounding them into shadow. Burnt orange, gold, and white leaves and flowers surround the boulder behind the woman, and a view into a moss-green forest interior extends into the distance to our right.
Sir Thomas Lawrence, Lady Mary Templetown and Her Eldest Son, 1802, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.96

Lady Mary Templetown and Her Eldest Son

Sir Thomas Lawrence · 1802 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.96

Bibliography

1939

  • Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. London, 1939.

1998

  • Ferguson, Niall. The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848. New York, 1998

  • Ferguson, Niall. The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker, 1849-1999. New York, 1998