Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo

Loo, Amédée van
Loo, Charles Amédée Philippe van
Vanloo, Amédée
Van Loo, Amédée
Vanloo, Charles Amédée Philippe
French, 1719 - 1795

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The painting depicts three children within an oval frame, their upper bodies visible. The central child, a young girl, is positioned with her body facing forward and her head turned slightly to the left. She has a fair complexion, with rosy cheeks, pink lips, and wide brown eyes. Her hair is gray and partially pulled back by a blue ribbon. She is dressed in a white garment with a yellow shawl draped over her shoulders. Her arms are outstretched, holding the ends of a cloth that has been pinned on her dress. Her arms and the cloth extend forward beyond the oval frame that encircles the trio, as if the frame is a window or porthole that she is reaching out of. On the right, a boy leans on the girl's shoulder, also facing to the left, seen in profile. He has light brown, curly hair and a fair complexion. He wears a dark blue-green jacket over a white collar, and he is looking upward towards the third child. On the left, another boy, who also has light skin and light brown curly hair, appears to stand on a chair above the other two children. He is holding a long yellow straw up to his lips. At the other end of the straw, a large bubble hangs over the white cloth that the girl holds out. In his other hand is a small white dish. He wears a muted brown outfit with a dark cloth wrapped around him. The background within the frame is plain gray, and the frame that surrounds the children is light gray and appears to be carved with leaf designs. Beyond the oval frame is gray.
Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo, Soap Bubbles, 1764, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Robert W. Schuette, 1945.10.2

Soap Bubbles

Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo · 1764 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.10.2
A young woman and two children are shown from the waist up through an oval, stone opening, holding and looking at a wooden box with a lens protruding from one side in this square painting. All three people have pale skin with rosy cheeks. To our right, the young woman’s body is angled to our left as she braces the torso of a young girl. The young woman looks at us from the corners of her sage-green eyes, under lifted brows. Her small, pink mouth is pursed in a slight smile, and she has a faint dimple in her rounded chin. Her heather-gray hair is partially plaited over the crown of her head, and long curls fall over her shoulders. She wears a spruce-blue shawl over the shoulders of her low-cut, olive-green dress. The child she braces has chubby cheeks, and her wavy blond hair is brushed back from her forehead and falls loosely to her shoulders. She wears a blush-pink dress with ruffles on the half-length sleeves and gossamer-white trim around the neckline and cuffs. The top and side rails of a wooden, ladderback chair up against the inside of the opening suggests she stands or kneels on a backward-facing chair. She rests her left hand on the edge of the stone opening and her other hand on the wrist of the boy standing close behind her. Mostly in the shadow behind the others, the boy has small, pointed features and short, curly, sable-brown hair. He wears a tan coat, and a muted blue scarf is tied at his throat. The two children gaze at the wooden box the boy holds, which is about the size of a toaster. A short, cylindrical, brass-lined lens pokes out of the center of the side facing the trio. The oval opening through which we see them is carved on our side with stylized leaves and berries, and the wall around it is the same elephant gray as the carvings. The girl and the box cast a shadow across the opening. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “Amedee Can Loo./1764.”
Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo, The Camera Obscura, 1764, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Robert W. Schuette, 1945.10.1

The Camera Obscura

Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo · 1764 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1945.10.1

Bibliography

1900

  • Seidel, Paul. Les collections d’oeuvres d’art françaises du XVIIIe siècle appartenant à Sa Majesté l’empereur d’Allemagne roi de Prusse. Berlin, 1900.

  • Seidel, Paul. Les collections d’art de Frédéric le Grand à l’Exposition Universelle de Paris de 1900. Berlin, 1900.

1912

  • Oulmont, Charles. “Amédée Vanloo, peintre du roi de Prusse.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 4, 8 (1912): 139–150, 223–233.

1935

  • Wehle, Harry B. “French Painting and Sculpture of the Eighteenth Century.” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 30 (Nov. 1935): 205–215.

1948

  • French xviiith Century Paintings. Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co, New York, 1948.

1962

  • Meisterwerke aus den Schlössern Friedrichs des Grossen. Exh. cat. Schlöss Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1962.

1970

  • Die Bauwerke und Kunstdenkmäler von Berlin: Schlöss Charlottenburg. Exh. cat. Schlöss Charlottenburg: Berlin, 1970.

1981

  • Plessen, Marie-Louis, and Daniel Spoerri. Le musée sentimental de Prusse: aus grosser Zeit! Berlin, 1981.

1983

  • “Seltene Berliner Porzellangruppe mit Guckkasten: Erwerbung des Filminstituts der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf.” Keramos 101 (1983): 94–95.

1994

  • Rolland, Christine. “Louis Michel Van Loo.” PhD diss., University of California at Santa Barbara, 1994.

1997

  • Friedrich Wilhelm ii und die Künste: Preußens Weg zum Klassizismus. Exh. cat. Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten, Berlin-Brandenburg, 1997.

2003

  • Vogtherr, Christoph Martin. Nicolas Lancret: der Guckkastenmann. Berlin, 2003.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: 419.