French Paintings 1890–1950

On View: East Building, Ground Level

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60 artworks on view.

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Shown from the knees up, a woman with peach-colored skin and dark hair sits facing us and holding a baby in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. The woman’s features are elongated and simplified, and the nearly geometric forms are outlined with gray. Loose brushstrokes are visible throughout, creating a textured, mottled effect. The woman’s long, thin face comes to a point at her chin, and her brown hair is pulled back on either side of her forehead. She has pale blue eyes, an exaggeratedly long nose, noticeably flushed cheeks, and her coral-pink, bow lips are closed. Her white blouse has a wide, tomato-red, squared collar that lies over her shoulders, and a thin, light blue scarf drapes around her neck and down her chest. Her long, full skirt is blended shades of violet purple and sky blue. The woman’s hands are clasped around a baby wrapped in a navy-blue blanket. The baby’s head is covered with a long pink cap with black and white bands at each end. The woman casts a narrow shadow against the gray wall behind her. Bands of elephant gray, black, and brown behind her across the bottom of the composition suggest an abstracted bench or seat she sits on. The artist signed the work in dark letters near the upper left corner: “Modigliani.”

Roma Woman with Baby

Amedeo Modigliani

1919

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.174

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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A woman plays an upright piano as two boys play checkers at a table in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of flat color and pattern. The people have pale, peachy skin and dark brown hair. Their facial features are painted with dots or short strokes of black. The piano is against the wall to our left. The woman wears a short-sleeved, lemon-yellow dress with a long skirt. A music book is propped on the music stand, and loosely painted objects line the top of the instrument. The wall behind the piano is patterned with white and pale yellow flowers under and around arches against a cranberry-red background. The table where the boys play is in the middle of the room. The players sit in wooden chairs and wear black and white striped jackets with white collars. The boy to our right looks at the board while resting his left cheek, closer to us, in his hand. The other boy looks on with his arms on the table in front of him. The checkerboard sits on a red and white striped cloth, which has lines of black dots in the white strips. Beneath the table is a floral rug with blue and black flowers against a red background. The border is painted loosely with leafy shapes against bright white. Beneath the area rug the floor or another carpet is garnet red with a diamond-shaped grid painted in orange. A petal-pink, upholstered chair sits in front of a tall wardrobe in the back corner of the room. A picture with two violins against a blue background hangs on the side of the furniture to our right. A chest of drawers next to the wardrobe holds a few bowls or objects and a white statue, about half human height. The statue is of a person standing with one knee bent in front of the other, one elbow tucked by the side with that hand held to the chest, and the other bent elbow raised overhead. Pictures hang on the wall around the statue, and the wallpaper there is ivory white with a dark yellow pattern. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, “Henri Matisse.”

Pianist and Checker Players

Henri Matisse

1924

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1985.64.25

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
This painting is a portrait showing a man from the chest up. The man's facial features are flattened and simplified, and he has pale skin with slightly blushing cheeks, narrow blue eyes, thin, arched eyebrows, a blond mustache, and short, light brown hair. Lines on the bridge of his nose and under his left eye suggest a pair of barely visible glasses. He is wearing a black garment with round tan patterns and a bright blue scarf. The background is mostly gray with a vertical stripe of brown on the right side. The brushstrokes are visible in the painting, especially those in the background. There is a signature on the top, near the top right corner.

Léon Bakst

Amedeo Modigliani

1917

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.173

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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This painting shows a portrait of a woman, depicted from the thighs up. She is seated with her body and head facing forward. She has pale skin, rounded cheeks with a slight blush, a small, red mouth, thin eyebrows, and lined eyes that slant downward towards her ears. Her brown hair is styled in waves, framing her face. She is wearing a black dress with a V-neck, and in her ears are dangling gold earrings. Her left hand is on her hip, with her right resting on her crossed legs, a cigarette between her fingers. She is sitting on a red wooden chair, and the background is a vibrant red color with earthy yellow sections in the top left and right corners.

Madame Amédée (Woman with Cigarette)

Amedeo Modigliani

1918

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.172

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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A woman with peachy skin and dark auburn hair is shown from her chest up sitting in a wooden chair in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our right, and her left arm, farther from us, rests on the back of the chair so the fingers of that hand rest alongside her left cheek. Her face is angled to our right but her dark eyes cut back to look at or toward us from the corners of her almond-shaped eyes. She has thin, gently arched brows, a long, sloping nose, and her burgundy-red lips are closed. Her features are outlined with delicate, dark gray or black lines. Bangs sweep across her forehead, and her hair looks like it might be pulled up and back. Her rust-brown garment has a square neckline, and a lighter strip of smoke gray and sky blue runs along her right shoulder, closer to us. She sits in front of an indistinctly patterned wine-red wall, with a lighter, tan-colored rectangle in the upper right corner. The background, her clothing, and the hand by her face are painted with areas of mottled color but the skin of her face seems smooth. The artist signed the painting with bright red letters at the upper right, “Modigliani.”

Adrienne (Woman with Bangs)

Amedeo Modigliani

1917

Oil on linen  Accession ID  1963.10.171

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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This painting shows a large dark green vase of round orange blooms, purple flowers similar to lilacs, and green foliage arranged together in the center. Two yellow-orange fruits are placed to the lower right, near what looks like a tan book or a stack of paper. They are surrounded by swirls of white and seem to rest on a brown surface. The background contains patches of tan and white, with more white swirls. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.

Peonies

Georges Braque

1926

Oil on wood  Accession ID  1963.10.90

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
A nude woman with long, dark brown hair and peach-colored skin reclines against a denim-blue cushion in this stylized, horizontal painting. The painting is done mostly with areas of mottled color outlined in delicate black lines. Shown from the knees up, the woman lies with her legs to our right, and her hips tipped forward so her body faces us. She looks at us with dark, almond-shaped eyes under thin, arched brows. Bangs gather across her forehead, and her dark hair seems to be pulled back. Her head is tipped to our right, and she has an upturned nose, smooth cheeks, a pointed chin, and her smiling coral-red lips are closed. She holds the back of her left hand to her cheek and props herself up on her other elbow. Her rounded breasts have rust orange-colored nipples, and the contours of her body are smooth. There is a patch of dark hair at her groin, and her legs are pressed together. The blue pillow she rests on overlaps a white cloth or second pillow. The rest of the background is painted a terracotta brown with loose brushstrokes, so the setting is undefined. The artist signed the painting in dark letters in the upper right corner: “modigliani.”

Nude on a Blue Cushion

Amedeo Modigliani

1917

Oil on linen  Accession ID  1963.10.46

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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Shown from the lap up, a woman with peach-colored skin sits leaning sideways against the back of a wooden chair with her head tilted to our left on her long neck in this vertical, stylized portrait. The painting is done mostly with areas of mottled color outlined in delicate black lines. The top of her head and her left elbow, on our right, are slightly cut off by the edges of the canvas. Her copper-red hair is parted in the middle and puffs down and around her hears. Her elongated oval face and delicate features are simply drawn. Pencil-thin, nearly straight, grayish eyebrows float above almond-shaped eyes entirely filled in with black. A faint gray line forms her elongated nose. Her small rose pink, pursed lips are slightly darker than the faint blush on her cheeks. Her jet-black, long-sleeved dress has a high waist and a wide, diaphanous gray collar at the rounded neckline. Her left elbow, on our right, drapes over the top of the spindles making up the back of the chair so her hand rests near the gray collar. Her other arm rests by her side. The background is a foggy swirl of sage green and elephant gray. Two faint, thin, parallel, horizontal gray lines that run across the background may suggest a baseboard.

Woman with Red Hair

Amedeo Modigliani

1917

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.176

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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Shown from the lap up, a cleanshaven man with black hair and dark clothes faces us as he sits with his hands resting together in his lap in this stylized, vertical portrait painting. The man's features, clothing, and the room are painted with areas of mottled color with visible brushstrokes, so many details are indistinct. The man has peach-colored skin, and his facial features are outlined. He has dark eyes that look at us or slightly up, under thin, arched brows. One eye is a little higher than the other, and the two halves of his long face do not quite match. He has a wide nose, and his full, dark rose-pink lips are closed. His hair is parted down the middle and is brushed down to meet his ears. He has an elongated neck, and his narrow shoulders slope down. He wears black pants and a black coat over a dark teal-green vest. A white shirt is visible along his neckline, and an area of black could be the knot of a tie. He holds the fingers of one hand in his other, both hands resting in his lap. A loosely painted, brown table sits next to the man to our right, and an area of slate blue and white could be a glass on the table. A vertical line in the background behind the man, to our right, probably indicates the corner of the room. The walls are painted with strokes of smoke gray, ocean blue, and some parchment white. The artist signed the work in dark letters in the upper right corner, “modigliani.”

Chaim Soutine

Amedeo Modigliani

1918

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.47

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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Shown from the waist up, we look slightly down onto a pale-skinned woman as she looks down and writes on a piece of paper in this vertical painting. The scene is loosely painted so brushstrokes are visible throughout and detail, especially in the background, is hard to make out. The woman wears a midnight-blue garment with long sleeves and a ruffled collar, and her hair is pinned or twisted up on the crown of her head. Her dark pink lips curve in a slight smile as she looks down with the pen poised in her right hand. Her left hand, to our right, rests with the fingertips on the sheet of paper. The table top is parchment white, and pink, white, and mint-green forms, presumably paper and a stationary box, sit in front of the woman and to our left. Her chair has a curved back and is upholstered with claret red. A vertical golden yellow strip on the right edge of the painting may indicate a curtain or wall, and a blend of muted blue, ash brown, and emerald green suggest patterned fabric or wallpaper behind her. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Bonnard.”

The Letter

Pierre Bonnard

c. 1906

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1963.10.86

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
Shown from the hips up, a woman and a man stand side-by-side in front of a window and curtain in this vertical painting. The people and background are painted with mostly flat areas of vivid color, with their bodies and features outlined in black. The man and woman both have paper-white skin, brown hair, straight noses, and small mouths. They stand facing us so the woman’s shoulder slightly overlaps the man’s. The man’s right arm wraps around the woman to rest on the far side of her neck. She holds his left hand with her left hand, both to our right, and her other arm is tucked into her waist. The woman’s head tilts to our right, toward the man, while her shoulders slope slightly away to our left. She looks off to our right with dark eyes under thin brows. Her white shirt is the same color as her skin. A sea green-cloth drapes over her head and one shoulder, and her skirt is buttercup yellow. The man turns his head to look at the woman. His clothing is coral red. The couple stands in front of a mauve-purple curtain on our right and a window with baby-blue panes set within an ash-gray frame on our left. The artist signed the painting in brown in the lower right, “Picasso 23.”

The Lovers

Pablo Picasso

1923

Oil on linen  Accession ID  1963.10.192

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
The elongated head and neck of a person with stylized features is carved from beige-colored limestone for this freestanding sculpture. Though mostly carved smooth, the surface of the porous limestone is pocked and textured. In this photograph, the face is angled to our right. Short bangs line the narrow forehead of the tall, oval face. The hair flaring around the crown and behind the tidy, oval ear we see is roughly carved. The marquis-shaped eyes are set high on the face. Eyebrows immediately over the eyes join to make a long, blade-like nose that nearly reaches the bottom of the oval face. The arrow-shape of the nose ends just above a half-moon-shaped lip over a round chin. The long neck continues to a block of limestone that acts as the base. The sculpture is photographed in front of a background that lightens from charcoal gray across the top to nearly white across the bottom.

Head of a Woman

Amedeo Modigliani

c.1911-1912

Limestone  Accession ID  1963.10.241

On View: East Building Ground Level, Gallery E103
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