French Paintings

On View: West Building, Main Floor

Filter Results

110 artworks on view.

Results

From a low perspective, we look at a man wearing black and white, lying on the ground with a pink flag beside him in this long, horizontal painting. We look onto the top of his head and his feet reach into the upper left corner of the composition, so he nearly fills the painting. His dark hair is cut short and gleams softly in the light from the upper left. His head has fallen toward his left shoulder, and his eyes are closed. He wears a black jacket and knee-length black pants. His jacket falls open to show white lining, and he wears a wide, white cummerbund and white stockings. His black, loafer-style shoes have pointed toes and possibly a bow at the bridge of each foot. He man’s right hand, farther from us, rests on his chest, and a black-handled sword or dagger is tucked into that elbow. That hand and his white tie are speckled with red blood. More blood seeps on the peanut-brown floor near the man’s left shoulder, closest to us. The man wears a gold ring on the pinky ring of his left hand, which lies along the ground and rests on or near the pale pink flag, which continues off the bottom left corner of the painting. The brown ground is lighter along the bottom of the painting and deepens to peat brown farther back, along the top edge. Brushstrokes are visible in some areas, especially in the white parts of the costume and the flag. The artist signed the painting in the lower right, “Manet.”

The Dead Toreador

Edouard Manet

probably 1864

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1942.9.40

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90
Download artwork
Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing an off-the-shoulder, black gown stands in front of a maroon-red wall in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our left, but she turns her round face to us. Her dark gray eyes seem out of focus, looking slightly off to either side of us, under faint brows. Her nose is straight, her pink lips closed over a pillowy chin, and her cheeks are lightly blushed. Her black hair is parted down the middle and smoothed to each side, pulled back and framed by a garland of flowers that drapes from the crown of her head down to either side of her chin like parentheses. The garland is made of peach-colored roses, burgundy-red flowers, and sage-green leaves. Her sloping shoulders are pale and smooth. The sleeves of the black dress wrapping around her upper arms are edged with a wide band of lace. The edge of a white undergarment is visible along the top of the black dress, which has a tightly fitting bodice. The skirt billows out at the narrow waist to fall in thick, heavy folds off the bottom edge of the painting. A large, oval, red jewel is set into a silvery-gold brooch at the front center of her neckline. Dimples are visible across the backs of both pudgy hands. With her right hand, on our left, she holds the end of a long strand of pearls encircling her neck. On that wrist is a gold bracelet with coin-like disks hanging from thick, gold links, and she wears a gold ring with a pearl and blue and red jewels on that ring finger. Her other arm hangs by her side. There, she wears two bracelets, one of gold and pearl, the other with a medallion of celestial blue enamel surrounding a pearl, also set in gold. Two gold rings with red stones are on the third finger of that hand, and a silver ring with a crest is on her pinky finger. With that hand she holds a closed fan with silver and gold sticks, and the end of a sheer black shawl that wraps up across her back and over the other shoulder. The top two-thirds of the wall behind her is covered by a pattern of stylized wine-red flowers against a muted maroon-red background. A wooden rail divides the top section of the wall from the gray paneling below. A few objects in the lower left corner, seen beyond the edge of her skirt, are difficult to make out, but could include a richly decorated gold and upholstered chair, a glove, and a white, lace-edged handkerchief. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner of the red patterned wall: “I.A.D. INGRES P.XIT ANO 1851.” The woman’s name appears in the upper right, “M.E INES MOITESSIER NÉE DE FOUCAULD.”

Madame Moitessier

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

1851

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1946.7.18

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M56
Download artwork
A man with pale peach skin and dark hair wears a military uniform and stands in front of a desk in this vertical portrait painting. He nearly fills the composition so seems close to us, and he looks directly at us. His body is angled slightly to our left and he tucks his right hand, on our left, flat against his chest between the buttons of his jacket. His navy-blue waistcoat is white along the front where it is fastened with brass buttons along his chest. The jacket has red cuffs, gold epaulets on the shoulders, and three medals affixed to the chest. White britches end just below the knee, and white stockings covering his calves are wrinkled at the ankle above black shoes with brass buckles. A candle burns low in a lamp on an ornately carved and gilded desk behind the man. Books and papers are piled on the desk to our right. More papers and a thin sword rest on a chair in front of the desk to our right. The chair is also carved and gilded, and is upholstered with scarlet-red fabric decorated with gold bees. The legs of the chair push back the forest-green carpet underfoot. A tall clock stands on the wall opposite us and reads 4:13. A few capital letters are written on a scroll of paper on the chair, “COD.” The artist’s name is also written as if printed on a scroll of paper on the floor behind the desk to our left: “LVD.CI.DAVID OPVS 1812.”

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries

Jacques-Louis David

1812

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1961.9.15

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M56
Download artwork
A bearded man with light skin, wearing a black costume and holding a plumed hat, stands in front of mottled brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left but he turns to look off to our right from the corners of his dark brown eyes. He has heavy, furrowed brows and high cheekbones. His dark mustache curls up at either end over a full beard, and his wavy chestnut-brown hair is swept back from his forehead. His black jacket has puffed sleeves with narrow ruffles of white at his collar and cuffs, and a peek of the white shirt at his chest where the row of buttons are undone. His puffy pants gather at the thigh over black stockings, and he wears black slippers. He crosses his wrists in front of him, and he wears a gold ring with a square, scarlet-red stone on his right ring finger, to our left. In that hand, he also holds a black hat with a long, feathery plume that falls to knee level. A saber lies on the floor to our left near the man’s feet, with the grip and elaborately twisting guard facing us. The background lightens from coffee brown along the top edge to light beige along the lower edge of the composition. The portrait is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout, especially in the costume and background. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Manet.”

The Tragic Actor (Rouvière as Hamlet)

Edouard Manet

1866

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1959.3.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90
Download artwork
Shown from about the lap up, a young person with brown hair and a peachy complexion faces our left in profile as he leans onto a table and sets folded playing cards up in a row in this vertical painting. Shown against a dark background, his long, brown hair curls by his ears and is pulled back with a navy-blue ribbon at the nape of his neck. He has a delicately sloping nose, his pink lips are closed, the cheek facing us is flushed, and he looks down at the tabletop under lowered lids. He wears a chestnut-brown, long-sleeved coat with a dark blue sash across his chest and tied around his waist. The white of his undershirt peeks out at the high neck and wrists, and the brick-red lining of the sleeve of his jacket rolls back at his right wrist. The wooden table is lined with teal-blue fabric on its surface, and three coins lie near his left hand, closer to us. In that hand he holds three nested, vertically folded playing cards. With his right hand he places the last in a line of ten cards, standing vertically but close together like dominoes, in a curving row in front of him. Scarlet-red diamonds and hearts and the edges of some black shapes are visible within the bent cards. A jack of hearts and a piece of paper or the back of another card sit in a drawer that opens toward us along the side of the table. The artist signed the work in dark brown paint in the lower right corner: “J. Chardin.”

The House of Cards

Jean Siméon Chardin

probably 1737

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1937.1.90

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M53
Download artwork
A man wearing loose, ivory-white clothing stands flanked by two groups of people in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale or peachy skin except for one person, who may have a brown mask. The man in the center, representing the character Pierrot, stands facing us with his hands by his sides. He has slightly bulging eyes, a bulbous nose, ruddy cheeks, and his full pink lips slightly smile. He wears a straw hat pushed back on his high forehead and a narrow ruffled collar around his neck. His shirt has long, voluminous sleeves and a row of small white buttons down the front. The pants are baggy and end abruptly above his white-stockinged ankles over white slippers. The fabric seems to have a sheen. In the shallow space behind him, a stone wall curves toward us to either side of a doorway that leads to a park-like setting. A crimson-red curtain is pulled to our right. Pierrot stands on the top of two steps, and the people to either side are arranged along the stage or the step that runs close to the bottom edge of the canvas. A spray of white flowers drapes down the front of the steps to our right of center. The group to our left has eight men, women, and children. Closest to us and in the lower left corner, a young man wearing a tomato-red jester’s costume trimmed with bells sits on the steps as he twists and looks back at the scene behind him. He holds a scepter or puppet in the shape of a doll-like jester. Two children gather at his feet. One weaves stems of white flowers together, and the other looks at us, smiling. Just above them another cleanshaven young man sits holding a lute in his lap. He wears a brick-red coat, brown breeches, and slate-blue stockings over crossed legs. He leans back and looks up and to our left, his round cheeks flushed. At the back of this group, two people wear tan-colored costumes covered in muted green and pink diamond shapes, and one might wear a brown mask. That person’s pink lips, black mustache and eyebrows, and black dots for eyes appear painted onto a hard, molded surface. The group of six people to our right stand on the same level as Pierrot. At the front of that group, a heavyset young man wears a gold-colored costume trimmed with black and a waist-length, Wedgewood-blue cape. He faces us but looks to our right as he leans back with one arm extended toward Pierrot. Beyond him are two woman and another person shown only from the neck up. The woman closest to Pierrot wears a pewter-gray gown with a scooped neckline. To the right of the man in gold is an old man with a long beard, wearing a black skullcap and cloak. He leans on a short staff and turns his head to look at the group. The last person on the far right is shown from the neck up and stands before the red curtain hanging from the upper right.

The Italian Comedians

Antoine Watteau

probably 1720

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1946.7.9

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M54
Download artwork
A pale-skinned woman stands holding a spoon and egg, and bracing a long-handled pan in one elbow, in front of a wooden table near a fireplace mantle in this vertical painting. The scene is brightly lit from our left, and the background falls into shadow. To the right of center, the woman wears a hip-length, white jacket patterned with large, rose-pink dots over a long skirt with vertical stripes of peach, shell and carnation pink, white, and tawny brown. A knee-length, petal-pink apron is pinned to the front of her dress. A frilled white bonnet covers her hair, and she wears fern-green, high-heeled, slip-on shoes. Her body faces our left almost in profile. She holds a silver spoon in her right hand as she peels the egg she holds in the other. A white cloth with a powder-blue stripe is draped over her left arm, which is bent to cradle the long handle of a pot. She stands in front of the table, which angles away from us. The end of the table closest to us is covered with a white cloth under a round loaf of bread, a tall, sky-blue pitcher, a shallow bowl with another egg and a pewter egg cup inside, and a large knife with a wooden handle. A mahogany-red pot with its cover askew sits at her feet. Behind the woman and to our right, the mantle and fireplace is cut off by the right edge of the canvas. A wooden ladderback chair peeks out from beyond the mantle, and a tall, covered, olive-green pitcher sits on the floor in front of it. A stoppered flagon and two bowls sit on the corner of the mantle. The wall and floor are fawn brown, darkening in shadow toward the back and left of the room.

The Attentive Nurse

Jean Siméon Chardin

1747

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1952.5.37

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M54
Download artwork
Shown from the knees up, a woman stands facing us as she turns her head to look off to our right in this vertical portrait painting. The woman has pale, peachy skin, deeply shadowed, hooded eyes, and a straight nose. Shadows fill the hollow of her high cheekbones, and she has a thin face. Her black hair is plaited and tied up and back under brown bands. Earrings hang from each ear, and she wears two strands of white and gray pearls and three red necklaces. Her shoulders slope down, and her arms hang by her sides. The garnet-red bodice of her dress is cut low over a white undergarment. Red straps loop up over her mostly bare shoulders. Sapphire-blue sleeves leave the shoulders exposed and have black bands at the cuffs, which fall short of her wrists. An apron tied around her waist is loosely painted with deep red flowers and dark green leaves against a parchment-brown background. Her long skirt is midnight blue in the shadows. She holds a shimmering object in her right hand, to our left, and rests her other hand on the brown stone wall that runs behind her thighs. A tree edges into the scene along the right, and a few white stucco houses with flat, red roofs cluster on a rocky hill in the distance behind the woman, to our left. The cliffs span most of the background and end in a sheer face near the right edge of the canvas. The sky is tinged with peach at the horizon glimpsed at the foot of the cliff but is mostly steely gray. The artist signed the lower left corner, “COROT.”

Agostina

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

1866

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.108

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90
Download artwork
A young man and child, both with pale skin, are framed within the rectangular opening of a stone window in this vertical painting. At the center, the young man leans toward us over his forearms, which rest on the wide ledge. Angled to our right, he holds a long straw to his mouth to blow a large, glistening bubble that hangs on the opposite end. A second straw rests in a glass cup filled with white liquid, presumably soapy water, that sits near his right elbow, on our left, and he looks down at the bubble. His chestnut-brown hair is tied back with a black ribbon, and curls hang down from his temple. He wears a brown jacket over a white shirt. A younger child peeks over the ledge to our right and also looks at the bubble. Seen from the nose up, the child wears a hat that curves up and over the crown of the head. The face of the brown stone building into which the window is cut seems close to us. A vine of ivy climbs up the face of the building to our left.

Soap Bubbles

Jean Siméon Chardin

probably 1733/1734

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1942.5.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M53
Download artwork
A pale, nearly nude woman with dark hair sits on a mossy rock, holding an archer's bow, with a dead deer at her feet in this vertical painting. Her body is angled to our left and she looks down toward the animal with dark eyes. Her hair is pulled up, and her pale pink lips are closed. She is covered only by a light, celery-green cloth and rose-pink ribbon across her hips. She has full, round breasts and curving belly, hips, and thighs. The deer’s legs face the woman as it lies on the ground, but its head is pulled back at a dramatic angle into the lower left corner, seeping blood from the mouth and from a slash across its neck. A quiver of arrows lies to the woman’s right, farther from us, on the moss-covered rock on which she is seated. More boulders behind her create the impression of hills, nearly filling the composition. Trees grow up against a corner of pale blue sky above.

Diana

Auguste Renoir

1867

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.205

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90
Download artwork
Shown from the lap up, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a goldenrod-yellow dress, sits reading a small book, facing our left in profile in this vertical painting. The deep, scooped neckline of her rich yellow gown is edged with lace and decorated with a mauve-purple bow at the bust. Her chest is covered by sheer white fabric under a ruffled, pleated collar. The ruff is tied at the back with another mauve bow, and a ribbon of the same color ties up her chestnut-brown hair. She has a delicate nose and rosebud mouth, and she tips her head down to read the book she holds in one hand. She sits against an oversize pillow streaked with pale lilac and deep rose pink. Her left arm, closer to us, is draped over a railing that extends across the width of the canvas. The background behind her is streaked with tan and muted teal blue. A vertical strip of light caramel brown along the right edge of the canvas suggests another wall against which the pillow rests. The artist’s loose, lively brushstrokes are visible throughout.

Young Girl Reading

Jean Honoré Fragonard

c. 1769

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1961.16.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M55
Download artwork
Shown from about the waist up, a man with pale, peachy skin, wearing a marine-blue greatcoat over several layers of clothing, looks out at us in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our left, and he looks at us from the corners of his dark brown, hooded eyes. He has an oval face with a slightly jutting chin, a long, straight nose, and his full-lipped mouth is lightly pursed. He is lit from our left, casting the right ear and side of his face in shadow. His chestnut-brown, wavy hair is short, and brushed forward over the ear we can see. Several shirts and coats are layered over his shoulders. Closest to his skin, a high-collared white shirt, with points reaching past his jawline, is tied with a wide, black neckcloth. Next is a custard-yellow garment, also with a high-neck, perhaps a vest. Over that he wears a brown coat with wide, pointed lapels. A bright, scarlet-red oval is fastened to one buttonhole on the lapel to our right, and a gold and rose-pink ornament peeks out from the bottom hem at his waist. Finally, the blue greatcoat has an elbow-length cape, and nearly falls off his shoulders. Fabric across the back of the collar is a hood lined with dark silver satin. He props his left elbow, to our right, on a table or ledge, and that wide cuff is rolled back over the white edge of this shirt. He wears a gold band on the pinky finger of that hand. The ledge is draped with a deep, marmalade-orange cloth. Gold tassels dangling from the end of a scrolled, bound document hangs off the edge of the ledge, near the man’s wrist. The background deepens from sage green along the lower left edge of the painting to fawn brown around the man’s head. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “Ingres. Pinx. Rom. 1810.”

Marcotte d'Argenteuil

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

1810

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1952.2.24

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M56
Download artwork

Loading Results