Charles A. de Burlet

1882 - 1956

Explore Selected Works

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man wearing a ruffled collar and ornately decorated doublet looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders and face angle to our left, but he gazes steadily our way with bright blue eyes under low, thin brows. He has a straight nose with a rounded tip, and his coral-pink lips are closed under a faint suggestion of a mustache and perhaps a beard. His short brown hair is brushed back from his high forehead, and his white collar curls in figure eights high along his chin and up the back of his neck. His doublet is brown patterned with gold horizontal stripes lined with silver zig-zags. Flower-shaped buttons lead down the front of his doublet from a high collar, and a long gold chain falls out of view below the bottom edge of the painting. His ivory-white sleeves have slashes in rows of alternating diagonals separated by gold embroidery. The background is dark ash brown.
French 16th Century, Portrait of a Nobleman, c. 1570, oil on fir or pine, Chester Dale Collection, 1942.16.1

Portrait of a Nobleman

French 16th Century · c. 1570 · oil on fir or pine ·  Accession ID  1942.16.1

Drawn with red and black chalk on cream-colored paper, a satyr has a man’s muscular upper body and the legs of a goat as he lies sprawled on his back across the width of this horizontal sheet. He lies with his head to our right and hooves to our left. His right arm, farther from us, is flung over his head and with that hand, he touches the sheep’s skin on which he reclines. The sheep’s head rests near the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr’s eyes are blank under lowered, deeply furrowed brows. His nose is bumped over the bridge and pointed at the end. His full lips are open to reveal his tongue and lower teeth over a cleft chin. A mustache or goatee is loosely drawn, and hollows in his cheeks suggest high cheekbones. A wine skin, like an oversized hot water bottle, is tucked under the hollow of his lower back. His left arm, closer to us, lies along the side of his body, and he holds a pan flute in that brawny hand. He has the furry haunches of a goat, and his legs are splayed so his hooves reach into the upper and lower left corners of the sheet. A grapevine with a few clusters of fruit curls behind his lower limbs and meanders across the background. Gray washes and sketchy lines are layered behind the vine. A tiny uppercase “R” appears to be penned near the lower right corner. Lower in that corner, a round stamp has a crown over an uppercase “W” above the letters “JCR.”
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Pan Reclining, possibly c. 1610, red and black chalk with red wash and gouache, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.17.1

Pan Reclining

Sir Peter Paul Rubens · possibly c. 1610 · red and black chalk with red wash and gouache ·  Accession ID  1978.17.1

Close to us, a bearded, balding man leads a donkey carrying a woman and child to our right against a hilly landscape in this horizontal painting. All three people have pale, peachy skin and halos. The man has a gray beard and hair, and wears a royal-blue tunic under a ruby-red robe. He leans on a walking stick and looks back at the donkey. The woman riding the donkey wears a blue and gold brocade-like cloak covering her head and body. She has a straight nose, small pink lips, and she looks toward the infant she holds close to her body. The baby wears a white garment and reaches for the woman’s face with one hand as he turns to look over his shoulder toward us. The path they walk on is lined with grass and detailed plants. A river runs parallel to the path a short distance away. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the painting is lined with green trees, blue mountains, and a few buildings to our left. Wispy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky streaked with peach near the horizon.
Vittore Carpaccio, The Flight into Egypt, c. 1515, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.28

The Flight into Egypt

Vittore Carpaccio · c. 1515 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.28

German 16th Century, Christ in Limbo, c. 1550/1575, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.85

Christ in Limbo

German 16th Century · c. 1550/1575 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.85

German 16th Century, The Crucifixion, c. 1550/1575, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.84

The Crucifixion

German 16th Century · c. 1550/1575 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.84