French Paintings

Holding a bunch of peonies in one hand, a woman with brown skin leans forward, toward us from behind a large basket holding dozens of flowers in this horizontal painting. The basket holding the flowers spans the width of the canvas, and the woman is shown behind it from the chest up. She wears a cream-white, long-sleeved blouse with scalloped trim around the high neck. She wears coral-red earrings, and a plaid cloth in tones of rust red, slate blue, pale purple, and black is tied tightly over her black hair, which is visible over her ears. Her brow is slightly furrowed, and she looks at us with large, dark eyes. Her full mouth is closed, the corners faintly downturned. She reaches her right arm, on our left, toward us with a bouquet of three pink-and-white peonies and greenery. Her basket is filled with yellow and red tulips, pink roses, white and purple lilac, and other white, pink, yellow, and blue flowers, and it takes up the bottom third of the composition. The woman and basket are shown against a dove-gray background. The artist prominently signed and dated the work with red letters near the upper right corner, near the woman’s head: “F. Bazille. 1870.”

Young Woman with Peonies

Frédéric Bazille

1870

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1983.1.6

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90

A young woman, holding a knife and vegetable in her lap and wearing a clay-brown jacket over a long, poppy-red skirt, sits on a wooden ladderback chair angled to our right in the center of this vertical painting. She has pale skin with cheeks and lips flushed deep pink. A white cap covers her upswept hair, and a sea-blue and tan neckerchief drapes around her neck. She hunches forward slightly and gazes to our right with parted lips. Her hands rest in her lap, and she holds a knife in her right hand and a white root vegetable in her left. Her lap is draped with an ivory-white cloth, speckled with tan spots that continue onto the hem of her red skirt and the floor. A copper-brown bowl with a flaring lip and a peacock-blue interior sits on the floor at her feet with several irregular white shapes lying inside, presumably peeled vegetables. To her left, our right, is a log-like section of a thick tree trunk with a cleaver embedded in it. The handle of a copper pan leans against the block. The bottom of that pan is propped up against a deep blue-gray bowl with a gold-colored interior. Light coming from the upper left gleams on the edges of the cookware and illuminates a spatter of tomato red on the surface of the chopping block. In the lower left, a handful of dirt-brown tubers are piled near an orange pumpkin or gourd, which is cut off by the edge of the painting. The floor and wall behind the woman are peanut brown washed with thin layers of slate blue. The artist signed and dated the painting in black on the wall above the chopping block, “Chardin 1738.”

The Kitchen Maid

Jean Siméon Chardin

1738

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1952.5.38

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M53

Towering, pale, celery-green trees frame a view of a lush park with about a dozen elegantly dressed, light-skinned men and women in this vertical landscape painting. The color palette is dominated by moss and lemon-lime green, golden yellow, and spruce blue. The men all wear jackets with long tails over knee-breeches, and their long hair is pulled back at the napes of their necks. The women wear long dresses with full skirts and hints of lace at the sleeves and bust, and their brown or white hair is pulled up. Nine of the men and women gather to our right on a stone terrace along the bottom edge of the painting. A man in butter yellow kneels in front of a woman wearing rose pink. Around this pair, people stand, kneel, sit, or recline wearing aquamarine blue, light turquoise, or ivory white. A man and woman sit on a bench to our left, a little removed from the larger group. This woman wears ruby red and the man leaning toward her wears topaz blue. Two people in the park beyond these groups are painted with only a few strokes of pale blue and white paint, and they look over a low hedge row lining the walking path. Beds of red flowers fill the lower corners of the composition in front of a statue of a woman to our left and a person, perhaps on a fountain, to our right. The grassy walking path and trees become more blue as they fade into the hazy distance between the tall tress to either side. The sky fades from pale blue along the horizon to a silvery blue, almost white, at the top.

A Game of Hot Cockles

Jean Honoré Fragonard

c. 1775/1780

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1946.7.6

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M55

A pair of arched cave openings yawn in a steep, rocky cliff face that fills this horizontal painting. The cliff face is painted with dabs and textured strokes of slate gray, peachy tan, and muted blue, and some moss grows along crevices to our left. The opening to our left of center is four times the size of the smaller opening next to it. Murky green water reflects the shadowy openings and the pier-like stone between them. The water churns white over large boulders to our right, in the lower corner of the canvas. A pale-skinned man, minuscule in scale in front of the larger opening, stands barefoot with his back to us. His pants are rolled up over his knees and the long shirt sleeves up to the elbow under a vest. One hand is raised to hold a long stick. He is on what might be a pier stretching across the water. The artist signed the work with red paint in the lower left corner, “Gustave Courbet.”

La Grotte de la Loue

Gustave Courbet

1864

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1957.6.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M93

A young woman with light skin stands in a garden, wearing a voluminous, full-length, silvery, shimmering gown in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces us, as she looks into the distance to our left. She has rosy cheeks, gray-green eyes under gently arched, light brown brows, and her coral-pink, thin, closed lips curve in a slight smile. Her ash-brown hair is pulled back and adorned with tiny shell-pink and azure-blue flowers along the left side top of head, to our right. A pleated lace ruffle encircles her smooth neck. Her gown is parchment white where the light glints off the stiff fabric and is silvery gray in the shadows, creating a silk-like sheen. The dress is cut low across the chest, fits tightly around her narrow waist, and has puffy sleeves tied at the elbows with topaz-blue bows. Another blue bow is tied at her chest, and the ends wrap around her back along her waist. A corsage at her left shoulder, to our right, is a profusion of white flowers around a pale pink rose. In her other hand, to our left, she holds a straw hat with a shallow crown and a wide brim, trimmed with sky-blue ribbon. The arm holding the hat is nearly engulfed in the deep folds of her full skirt. She holds a pink rose in her other hand, which rests on the lip of a shiny, copper-colored urn filled with pink flowers and delicate green leaves. On that wrist she wears a bracelet with four strands of white pearls holding a cameo. She stands on a pale, dirt ground. A teal-blue bench in the lower left corner of the painting is tucked into sage-green shrubbery. Sprigs of pink roses are strewn across the seat and on the ground. The woman is framed to either side with olive and celery-green trees and vegetation, which blend into the hazy distance beyond her head.

Madame Bergeret

François Boucher

possibly 1766

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1946.7.3

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M55

Shown from the waist up, a woman with pale, peachy skin reads a book with one elbow propped on a grassy bank in this horizontal painting. The woman’s body is angled to our right, and she looks down at a pale green-covered book held in her right hand, which is in the lower left corner of the composition. The woman has dark brows over hooded eyes, and her dark brown hair falls loosely behind her shoulders. She has a round face, straight nose, and pale lips. She touches her hair with her left hand, to our right, with that pinky delicately crooked. One strap of a sleeveless, pearl-white chemise falls off the shoulder of that arm, and the dress nestles around her belly, revealing much of the other breast. Leafy trees and gray rocks are loosely painted behind her. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “G. Courbet.”

A Young Woman Reading

Gustave Courbet

c. 1866/1868

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1963.10.114

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90

In a lush, tree-lined park, filtered light falls across a group of about a dozen light-skinned people lounging and frolicking along the banks of a river in this vertical landscape painting. A man wearing a shell-pink jacket and pants and woman wearing a topaz-blue, full-skirted dress and rose-pink bonnet sit near each other in the lower left corner. Several younger boys pile up in a game where one person tries to ride on the back of another, to our right. They wear rolled-up pants, open-necked shirts, and some wear straw-colored hats. Tall aspens, with smooth greenish-white trunks and soft, golden leaves, are among the trees that line this placid river. A gnarled trunk twists against the cloudless blue sky above the revelers to our right. Other couples board a long, narrow boat at the riverbank in the distance.

A Game of Horse and Rider

Jean Honoré Fragonard

c. 1775/1780

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1946.7.5

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M55

Allegory of Music

François Boucher

1764

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1946.7.2

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M54

An orange and the bodies of a large fowl and two rabbits on a brown ledge nearly span the width of this square still life painting. The face of the ledge takes up the bottom quarter of the composition. Near the left edge of the canvas, the orange has a stem with dark green leaves. Next to it, near the center of the composition, the bird lies face up with its sapphire-blue head and neck draped down backward over the face of the ledge. The rest of its body is rust red, gray, and brown, and its tail feathers are angled up toward the top right corner of the canvas. The two rabbits have silver-grey fur tinged with muted golden yellow. They lie, one atop the other, to our right of the fowl. Their eyes are closed, and a drop of dark red blood drips from the mouth of the rabbit underneath. The ledge is caramel brown, and the wall behind is mottled with ginger brown and putty grey. The artist signed the lower left, “chardin.”

Still Life with Game

Jean Siméon Chardin

probably 1750s

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1952.5.36

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M53

A young woman draws on an oval surface with white chalk while three winged, baby-like putti gather nearby, all on a bank of pale pink clouds in this horizontal painting. The woman and putti have pale, rosy skin, flushed cheeks, and hazel-brown eyes. To our left, the woman reclines with her upper body propped up on her far elbow, which rests on a steel-blue cushion as her legs stretch out to our right. Her light brown hair is braided and wrapped across the top of her head. She wears a loose, seafoam-green robe over a billowing ivory-white garment that has slipped off the shoulder closer to us. A round paint palette with brushes sticking out of its thumb hole and a roll of blue and white paper sit in the lower left corner, behind the woman. The woman and the objects are on a red cloth. In front of the woman is a rounded surface, perhaps a canvas, on which she draws. She holds up a gold-colored stylus with her right hand, closer to us, with a pointed piece of white chalk in one end and black chalk in the other. The canvas is taller than her head, so the child-like putto she draws on it is life-sized. The three nude putti on the far side of the canvas have copper or golden-blond, curly hair, flushed, rounded cheeks, short wings in white or peacock blue, pudgy torsos, and dimpled limbs. One putto, presumably the one the woman draws, sits back on the bank of clouds with a carnation-pink sash across his chest. He pulls his chin back and looks at her from under his eyebrows. He holds a gold-colored torch with a pink flame in one hand, and the other hand rests near a cylindrical quiver of arrows. Another putto peeks around the side of the canvas, and the third stands and props the canvas up. That third putto holds up a wreath of laurel leaves up over the canvas, above the woman’s drawing hand. The bank of clouds is parchment-brown with muted pink and blue highlights against a vivid blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “F Boucher – 1765.”

Allegory of Painting

François Boucher

1765

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1946.7.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M54

Shown from about the knees up, a woman with pale, pink skin and cinnamon-brown hair sits with her hands in her lap as she gazes off to our right in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our left but she looks in the other direction with round blue eyes. She has a straight nose and her wide, peach lips are closed in a soft line. Her hair is parted down the middle and tied back at the nape of her neck with a purple ribbon. She wears a long-sleeved, periwinkle-purple dress with black five black buttons down the front. Black lace lines her cuffs and her shoulders where the sleeves meet the bodice, and a black bow is tied around the high collar. She wears a wide black belt with a gold, rectangular buckle. A black lace shawl is wrapped around her waist and she holds it closed under her overlapping hands, which rest in her lap. Her full skirt spans the width of the canvas along the bottom edge. She wears gold hoop earrings with gray, oval stones at the front of each loop. On the hand we can see, she wears gold rings set with stones on her ring and pinky fingers. Her emerald-green chair has a rounded back. One vibrant yellow button is seen near her shoulder, and another is mostly covered by her skirt. The background behind her is stone gray to our left and shamrock green to our right. The portrait is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes, especially in the dress and background. The artist signed and dated the painting “A. RENOIR, 1865” along the edge of her skirt on the right side.

Mademoiselle Sicot

Auguste Renoir

1865

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1963.10.209

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90

A long-haired, small white dog with tawny-brown ears and spots sits on a garnet-red cushion in this loosely painted vertical portrait. The dog looks just to our left with large, round, black eyes under perked eyebrows. Long, floppy ears hang to either side of its short muzzle. A snub black nose glistens over its downward curving mouth. The long fur on the dog’s body is painted with visible strokes in white and silvery gray. Its thin front legs are braced near a black and white ball, which rests at the edge of the cushion near the lower right corner of the composition. The background is coffee brown, and the artist signed the lower right corner with black paint, “ed. Manet.”

A King Charles Spaniel

Edouard Manet

c. 1866

Oil on linen Accession ID 1970.17.36

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M90

Young Woman with Peonies

Young Woman with Peonies

The Kitchen Maid

The Kitchen Maid

A Game of Hot Cockles

A Game of Hot Cockles

La Grotte de la Loue

La Grotte de la Loue

Madame Bergeret

Madame Bergeret

A Young Woman Reading

A Young Woman Reading

A Game of Horse and Rider

A Game of Horse and Rider

Allegory of Music

Allegory of Music

Still Life with Game

Still Life with Game

Allegory of Painting

Allegory of Painting

Mademoiselle Sicot

Mademoiselle Sicot

A King Charles Spaniel

A King Charles Spaniel

West Building

East Building

Sculpture Garden