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Allegory of Sacred Music
Margaret Fuller
Young Woman with Ibis
Souvenir of an "International Ball" (Portrait of Miss Kathleen Bruce)
Carmencita
Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau)
Familie Markl
Two pale-skinned women sit facing each other on a long sofa centered on the wall across from us in a room warmly lit from the right in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted so some details are indistinct. The woman on our left wears a white, full-length dress belted at the waist and trimmed with a ruffled hem. The puffy sleeves narrow below the elbow and are tucked into long, fawn-brown gloves. She wears a brimmed hat topped with dabs of white and lapis-blue paint, presumably flowers, with a sheer veil covering her face and chin. Glints of gold at her wrists might be bracelets. Her lower body faces us but her head and torso turn to her left, our right, to face her companion. She leans forward, with her left hand slightly extended, and she rests her fingertips on the cushion between them. Her other hand, closest to us, holds the curving handle of a closed, shell-pink parasol trimmed with white. To our right, the second woman sits with her knees angled to our left as she turns her head in profile, looking at her companion. She wears a floor-length, butter-yellow dress with white, vertical stripes. The dress has a high black collar, and a black ribbon wraps around her waist and falls down the front of the dress. Her sleeves billow at the shoulder and narrow below the elbow. Her dark brown hair is gathered at the top of her head. She holds a flat object in the same butter yellow in her lap that may be a matching hat. The sofa spans almost the entire width of the center of the painting. Its seat is draped in spruce-green fabric, and emerald-green, mauve, rose-pink, black, and gold throw pillows are scattered along its length. The lower half of the wall behind the women is tawny brown while the upper half is divided into four sections. A coral-red and off-white wall hanging fills the wall to our left of the woman in white. A framed artwork and mustard-yellow fabric with daubs of white, ash gray, and black hang on it. Moving right, a column of three framed artworks hang on the wall between the women. Next is a large mirror with a gold frame that hangs behind the woman in yellow. At the far right is another column of three framed artworks. The room behind us is reflected in the large mirror, showing an amber-colored wall with large windows and more framed artworks. Steps leading up to another sunlit room are also visible. A wicker chair with a pink and white pillow sits in the lower right, facing the women at an angle. The floor in front of them fills the lower third of the composition and is covered with a vanilla-yellow carpet streaked with areas of smoke gray and brick red. Two small throw pillows with tassels lie at the feet of the woman in white. The tip of the parasol points to a small sage-green pillow with tomato-red tassels lying on the floor between the women. To our left of the woman in white is a cream-white pillow with marigold-orange tassels. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left, “Wm. M. Chase. Copyright 1895.”
A small brown dog and a pale-skinned little girl wearing a white dress sit in matching celestial-blue armchairs in this horizontal painting. To our right, the girl sits with her legs angled to our left. She slumps back with her legs spread, and her left elbow, on our right, is bent so that hand rests behind her head. Her other elbow is draped over the armrest. Her dark brown hair appears to be pulled back, and tawny brown eyes under faint brows gaze down and to our left. She has a small nose set in a round face and a coral-pink mouth closed in a straight line. Her white dress has touches of gray, soft pink, and powder blue with a wide plaid sash around her waist. The pine-green, black, and sapphire-blue sash is accented with overlapping vertical and horizontal lines of burnt orange, light blue, and mustard yellow. Her socks match her sash and come up to mid-calf, over black shoes with silver buckles. The small dog has scruffy black fur and a russet-brown face. It lies curled in the chair opposite the girl, to our left, with its eyes closed and ears pricked up. The rounded backs of the upholstered chairs curve down to become the low arms. The vivid and light blue fabric of the chairs is scattered with loosely painted strokes of avocado and forest green, peach pink, cherry red, plum purple, and white. Beyond the chairs closest to us is another armchair and an armless loveseat, both covered with the same fabric. They sit at the back of the room, in a corner flooded with silvery light coming through four windows on the right side. The furniture is arranged on a peanut-brown floor. The artist signed in the lower left, “Mary Cassatt.”
Boating
Portrait of a Woman in Gray
A Maid Asleep
By the Seashore
Shown from the elbows up, a young person with pale skin and brown hair wearing a wide, scarlet-red hat sits in front of a tapestry in this vertical portrait painting. She sits with her body facing our right in profile but she turns her face to look at or toward us with dark eyes. She has a rounded nose, rather flat cheeks, and a sliver of teeth is visible through parted coral-pink lips. The wide brim of the red hat seems to be made of a soft, almost feathery material, and it casts a shadow across her face. She wears a high-collared white garment that catches the light, a royal-blue, possibly velvet, robe or overcoat, and large, teardrop pearl earrings. Her arm runs along the bottom edge of the panel in front of two carved, wooden lion finials that could be the arm or back of the chair. The tapestry behind her is painted in tones of pale caramel brown and pine green. The painting has a soft, hazy look, and light glints with bright white specks off the pearl earrings, the tip of her nose, her lips, and the lion finials.
Albert (René) Grenier (1858–1925)
Woman Reading a Letter
Woman at Her Toilette
Vase of Flowers
This painting shows a woman sitting at a round table. She has fair skin, sharp cheekbones, thick eyebrows, and pale lips with one side of her mouth raised in a partial smile. She has short brown hair with bangs across her forehead. She is wearing a black dress with a high collar, a pale yellow bow around her neck, and a white apron over her lap. In her hand, she holds a small, translucent glass that rests on the table. The background is a blurred blend of earthy tones, including brown, gray, and dark green, which suggest a wall behind her. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.
L'Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux (Marie Julien, 1848–1911)
A vase holding mostly white flowers sits on a floral-patterned cloth in this vertical still life painting. The ice-blue vase has a narrow foot, tall, slightly tapering sides, round shoulders, and a long neck flanked by handles. An ivory-white circle at the center could be a flower painted on the body. The flowers the vase holds are all pearl and snow white except for two golden yellow flowers and dark greenery. The cloth on which the vase sits is patterned with muted red and dark yellow flowers with green leaves against parchment white and earth brown. A few brown lines cutting across the bottom left corner of the painting could be the edge of a wooden table. Just behind the flowers, a cloth or curtain patterned with dark yellow, moss green, and spruce blue hangs against a teal-green wall, visible along each side of the composition. The objects are loosely painted and outlined with cobalt blue.
A pale-skinned young woman wearing a kimono stands facing our left in a dim interior in this vertical painting. Her black hair is upswept, and her head tilts slightly down with eyes closed. The seat of a wooden, ladderback chair rests against the back of her knees. With her left hand, closer to us, she reaches back to grasp the top rail chair behind her. She holds a folded white and brown fan in her other hand, by her side. Her voluminous robe is fawn brown and trimmed with brilliant scarlet red down the collar and around the hem. The kimono has wide, long brown sleeves that come down past her hips. The red collar extends nearly to her knees, and another slash of red lines the deep sleeve on her extended arm. The robe pools on the floor at her feet. Above the red band along the bottom hem, the robe is painted loosely in patches and dabs of black, cobalt blue, turquoise, ruby red, and pale pink. Light from the upper right gives her peachy skin a golden tinge and highlights the furniture near her, while casting the rest of the room in shadow. She stands in front of a round table draped with a fabric mottled in earth brown and gray, and bordered with a dark brown band filled with smudges of orange and green. A book and a black carrying case or bag are barely visible on the table's shadowy surface. An image framed in light blue hangs on the olive-green wall over the table. The wall to our right, behind the woman, is mostly forest green. The artist signed the lower right in black paint, “Alfred H. Maurer.”
Madame Manet (Suzanne Leenhoff, 1829–1906) at Bellevue
Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fireplace
The year 1907 was a turning point for Sargent; the sought-after portraitist stepped away from his successful portraiture career to pursue plein-air landscape painting. This work, depicting his traveling companions and fellow artists Wilfrid and Jane Emmet de Glehn, captures that moment of transition. Combining landscape and portraiture, the composition speaks to friendship and painterly pursuits while also celebrating color, light, and movement.
At the Milliner's
A woman with pale, smooth skin stands wearing a loosely draped, champagne-peach dress in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces us but she turns her head to look down and off to our right with brown eyes. She has dark brows, an upturned nose, and her carnation-red lips are closed in a slight smile. Her ash-brown hair is loosely pulled up so it sweeps back from her face, while thick curls cascade down her neck and over her shoulders. Her long sleeved, floor-length dress is tied at her waist with a sage-green sash. Gossamer-white fabric drapes around her upper arms, and she holds the long ends in both hands. Her right elbow, to our left, rests on the high base of columns that rise behind her and off the top edge of the canvas. A rust-red curtain drapes down from the top of the painting, over the columns. To our right, beyond the columns, the landscape opens to a view of trees beneath a blue sky with white puffy clouds.
On the River
Two Ladies
Émilie
Madame Cézanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850–1922) in the Conservatory
This painting shows four individuals - three women and one child - in an indoor setting. One woman is seated on a chair on the left, wearing a purple and blue dress under a black coat, with white gloves and a gray hat. Next to her, sitting on an arm of the chair, is another woman with blonde hair, wearing a light teal dress. To the right, in the center of the painting, a child stands, wearing a blue dress or tunic. On the far right, a third woman sits on a bench, wearing a bright red-and-white dress with a white-and-blue hat capped with a white feather, as well as long white gloves. All of the people have pale skin, and their faces are detailed. The room around them has other colorful furniture, including two armchairs in shades of red and teal, and the walls are in shades of light blue and cream. Red curtains hang over an open window or balcony, and there's a painting in a gold frame on a wall on the right. The orange floor beneath them is covered in several colorful, patterned rugs.
Four flowers and greenery create a loose bouquet in a clear glass in this vertical still life, which is painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. The glass has a tall, narrow, rounded bowl on a flaring foot like a drinking glass. One fully open, light pink peony bloom bows over the edge of the glass to our left. A pink bud stands upright in the glass. Two other oblong flowers, perhaps closed tulips, angle to the left. One is smoky purple, and the other is cream-white edged with brick red. One pink petal lies on the tabletop, which is painted with broad strokes of ash and earth brown. Canvas is visible along the bottom edge and in the lower corners. The background behind the flowers is painted with dashes and long strokes.
La Dentellière
The Dutton Family in the Drawing Room of Sherborne Park, Gloucestershire
Roses in a Vase
When this work was painted, millinery work (hat making) was considered a prestigious trade, elevating the women who succeeded in the business. Degas addressed this subtle shift in the class hierarchy: He gave his milliner a dress nice enough to be worn by an affluent woman, and though she does not wear the expected hat of a high-class lady, Degas playfully positioned the hat with green trimmings so it seems to sit atop the woman’s head.
Insects and Flowers, Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century, color on silk, Tokyo National Museum
Clara Louise Kellogg
Jessie Benton Frémont
Vase of Flowers
Charles Meigs
Oleanders
Portrait of Victor Ritter von Bauer
Dame in zinnobergrünem Kleid
Toulouse-Lautrec made a career depicting colorful personalities from Parisian cabarets and dance halls like the Moulin Rouge. He populated this painting with that nightclub's regulars, including himself—the diminutive figure in the center background. Dancer La Goulue arranges her hair behind the table where Jane Avril, another performer, socializes. Singer May Milton peers out from the painting's right edge, her face harshly lit and acid green.
A woman wearing a sheer white blouse, short red and gold vest, and full-legged, patterned pants cinched below the knee lies back and looks at us with hooded eyes in this horizontal painting. Her shoulders lean back against an oversized white pillow, up along the right edge of the composition. Her body tips toward us, and her knees are bent so her feet are together in the lower left corner. Her right arm rests along the side of her body, and she props herself up with her other arm. That hand has a gold band on the ring finger. Her light skin is tinged with green on her face. Her head rolls slightly away from us so she looks down her cheeks at us with slitted, dark eyes through heavily lined lids. She has dark brows, and her rose-red lips are parted. The angle of her head creates a slight double chin. Gold hoops with dangling fringe or chains hang from her ears, and she wears three strands of dark beads around her neck. Her black hair is plaited in a thick braid that comes down over her left shoulder, closer to us. A cap made of gold-colored disks and red fringe sits on the far side of her head. The woman’s clothing is more loosely painted. We may see her breasts and pink nipples through her sheer, silver-gray tunic, which has long, voluminous sleeves. The short, bolero-style vest is strawberry red and gold, with narrow cap sleeves. A sea-blue sash around her waist is striped with overlapping burnt-orange and black lines. Her pants have flaring legs gathered with a button just below her knees. The pattern is of sage-green circles with swipes of rust-red in the center, suggesting flowers and vines against a black background. Her knees are spread open so her feet can barely be contained within the composition. Her teal-green slip-on shoes have the suggestion of flowers painted with dabs of yellow, black, and red, and a pompom atop each toe box. A red and gold cushion sits just beyond her feet. On it is a tray of oranges and an emerald-green jug. The pillow the woman leans on is propped against a short section of wall or piece of furniture painted with a border of roses. The room opens up beyond this, and has a turquoise and brown rug leading back to a cranberry-red sofa, on which a gray piece of fabric has been draped. The wall above is patterned with yellow and green diamonds and pink flowers against a laurel-green background. The artist signed the lower left, “A. Renoir. 70.”
A young woman with smooth, pale skin wearing a fog-gray gown stands in shadowy outdoor setting in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces our right almost in profile. Her head turns toward us though she looks off to our left with brown eyes under arched brows. Auburn-brown hair frames her heart-shaped face, which has a slender nose over closed, coral-red lips and a dimpled chin. Her long, curly hair is gathered at the back of her head and tied with a sand-brown ribbon. Long tendrils hang down her shoulders and back. Her iridescent gown has a deep neckline and a wide, harvest-gold sash around her waist with matching bands on the upper arms. A shimmering, laurel-green cape bordered in gold falls from her shoulders in deep folds down her back. The woman has pulled some of the cape forward with both hands to hang down her left side, farther from us. She wears delicate, translucent pearl bracelets on one wrist, and steps forward on silvery-gray shoes under the dress’s long hem. Bright light falls across the scene from the upper left so much of the background is in shadow. A stone wall behind the woman spans the right half of the painting. A tree grows up along its leftmost edge, just beyond the woman’s shoulders. A landscape along the left third of the composition opens onto trees under a sky filled with thick, off-white and steel-gray clouds.
Selbstbildnis
Hof
Seated African Woman
A pale-skinned woman sits on a red velvet chair, which is almost entirely hidden by her voluminous, dark emerald-green and gold gown, in this vertical portrait painting. The woman sits in the center of a shadowed, cavernous space, and her body and dress nearly fill the composition. Her body is turned slightly to our right, and she looks at us from the corners of her large, dark eyes. She has a round face, slightly flushed cheeks, and her full, rose-pink lips are closed. Her tawny-brown hair is pulled back under a headband that glints silver over her right ear, to our left. A goldenrod-yellow flower is tucked into her hair near that spot. Her tall, gossamer lace ruff collar is pleated into figure-eights, and it spans the width of her shoulders. Dots of white paint suggest detailing along the pleated edges. The fabric of her gown is so dark green that it appears black in some places, and it is decorated with bands of gold embroidery down the front of the bodice and full skirt, and around the bottom hem. A cape-like garment splits over long, puffy sleeves, which end with pleated, fog-gray fabric at the wrist. The cape and sleeves are densely ornamented with vegetal designs in glimmering gold. She rests her left elbow, on our right, on the arm of her chair so her hand rests palm up, near her waist. The other hand hangs off the end of the other arm of the chair, which is covered by her sleeve. A closed, black and gold fan hangs on a gold chain near that hand. Her skirt brushes the carpet, which is patterned with floral designs in ruby red, mustard yellow, and charcoal gray. The only parts of the chair that we see are a gold orb finial over her right shoulder, to our left, and the velvet-covered arm of the chair on the opposite side. Above the woman to our right hangs the edge of a muted gold curtain. The woman is lit from behind us, and the space around her is largely swallowed in shadow. Another curtain is lifted in the room behind her. Through it, we look out onto a landscape with a stone tower and buildings under a sky swirled with parchment brown, steel gray, and a sweep of brick red.
Peahen and hibiscus
Shown from the waist up, a woman with pale skin and brown hair, wearing a dark corset and white fabric over her shoulders, looks down at needlework in her hands in this vertical painting. Her cheeks are rosy and her dark hair is pulled back, though it seems looser down the sides of her face. A small, coral-red, crescent shape at the back of her head could be covering her hair or holding it in place. White, nearly translucent fabric lies loosely across her shoulders over a dark, moss-brown, long-sleeved dress. Her breasts swell over the squared, lace-trimmed neckline. She holds white fabric and perhaps a needle in her hands, which rest on a tan cushion on her lap. The scene is loosely painted throughout so some of the details are difficult to make out. A darker spot along her right index finger could be a thimble. The background is the same olive-tan of the cushion.
Adeline Ravoux
A pale-skinned woman wearing a long, rose-pink gown sits amid a lush landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left, but she turns her head to look at us with green eyes under dark brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth, flushed cheeks, and her carnation-pink lips are closed. Her long, curly, ash-brown hair is loosely pulled back in an emerald-green ribbon, but tendrils floating around her face seem to lift as in a breeze. A ponytail or thick tendril drapes over her far shoulder, almost reaching her waist. The low neckline of her gown is wrapped with translucent, gold cloth, and the elbow-length sleeves are gauzy white. The gown has a pale pink bodice and long, full skirt. Ribbons the same green as the one in her hair wrap around her waist and around the elbow we can see. She crosses her ankles so delicate, high-heeled, charcoal-gray slippers peek out from the bottom hem of her skirt. She sits on a gray boulder, her hands folded in her lap as she holds the ends of her translucent scarf. A tall tree grows along the right edge of the composition to arc up and over with olive-green and harvest-gold leaves. Beyond the woman, the land dips down to our left back into a tree-filled valley. Swipes of slate blue in the distance could be mountains. A short distance from us, to our left, one tree with a narrow, pale green canopy grows up against the sky. Behind that tree, yellow sunlight breaks through light blue, lavender-purple, and silver clouds that fill the rest of the sky. Parts of the scene are loosely painted with swirling, fluttering strokes, especially in the woman’s costume and the trees around her.
Shown from about the hips up, a man with peachy skin, wearing an ink-black hat and coat with a bright white collar, looks out at us against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. He stands with his body angled to our right and his face turned to look at us with dark gray eyes. His slim face is framed in long, brown curls under his tall, brimmed hat, which is cocked a little to our right, away from us. He has a straight, prominent nose, lightly flushed cheeks, and a wispy, light brown mustache above a small, pointed goatee under his lower lip. His neck is encased in a broad, starched, white linen collar, its wings lying along his collarbones. His velvety black coat has a row of tightly spaced buttons down the front. A cummerbund or sash wraps around his waist and hips. He rests his right hand, on our left, against his hip near his lower back, palm facing out. He wears a light, dove-gray glove on his opposite hand, and holds a second glove in that hand. The background is earth brown. The portrait is painted loosely, with broader brushstrokes in some areas, such as the hand at his hip and in the folds of the black garments.
Nini in the Garden (Nini Lopez)
A woman pushes aside a deep golden yellow curtain that fills three-quarters of this nearly square painting. The curtain runs on a rod parallel and close to the top of the canvas, extends off the right edge, and falls behind a bed covered in the same color. The bed is cropped by the bottom and left edges of the painting, and a brown, arched wood footboard almost reaches the right side. The woman stands on the far side of the bed, facing away from us as she pulls at the curtain with her right hand. She wears a navy-blue dress and a brown braid falls down her back. She reveals an area covered in a pink, green, and white floral pattern that seems to match the size of the curtain, at least along the left edge where it is exposed. A round mirror hangs on the floral-patterned area above a red piece of furniture, perhaps a small table or stool. The wall around the patterned area and curtain is painted bone white. A line incised in the paint running from the top left corner of the floral area to the top edge of the canvas suggests a crack in the wall. The paint is loosely applied so brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the floral pattern. The artist’s signature is painted in red in the lower left corner: "E. Vuillard."
The Sunlight
Strawberries
We look slightly down into a lime-green and white rowboat carrying a woman holding a baby and a man in this nearly square painting. The man wears midnight-blue shoes, pants, jacket, and soft, floppy cap. He sits with his back to us, bending forward to row the boat, which is cropped by the bottom edge of the canvas. The left side of his ruddy face is visible over his left shoulder. The woman and baby both have pale skin. The woman and baby sit across from the man, facing us to our left in the bow. The woman’s long-sleeved, sky-blue dress is crosshatched with pink lines. The baby leans back in the woman’s arms, and wears a pink dress, blue socks, and brown shoes. The wide-brimmed hats on both the woman and baby are painted pale celery green. They gaze toward or just past the man. The corner of the boat’s sail, also painted pale green, is pulled taunt by the wind to our left. Azure-blue water surrounds the boat up to the high horizon line, which brushes the top edge of the painting. The shoreline in the distance is lined with trees and dotted with white houses with red roofs.
Shown from the hips up, a young man with pale skin and wearing black clothing sits with his body angled to our right as he turns to look at us in this vertical portrait painting. He looks out with green eyes under hooded lids. Light falls across his face from the upper left so his bumped nose casts a shadow on his high cheekbone. He has a wispy mustache over full, pink lips, which are slightly parted. His hair falls to his shoulders in auburn-brown curls, framing his slender face. Two silvery tassels hang on cords from a tall, wide, flat, bright white collar, which contrasts with the velvety black of his voluminous, long-sleeved jacket. His left hand, farther from us, rests on his knee and the other hand is curled so the back of his knuckles press against his right hip, closer to us. A patch of crimson red near that hand could be a pillow on his chair. His hat rests, presumably on a table, just beyond his legs. The hat has a tall, tapering, conical crown with a flat top. The shadowy wall behind him is mottled with slate gray and caramel brown, with a slightly darker panel to suggest a shallow niche.
The Girl by the Window
Arion on a Sea Horse
Mademoiselle Nys
Grapevine in the Wind
Mrs. Nadassy
Hebe
The Siesta
Still Life with Flowers and Fruit
Sun Bird
Inside the Bar
Two people, perhaps a woman and man, and a baby sit at a table in a courtyard surrounded by vine-covered walls in this square painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible dabs, dashes, or smudges. The table is to the left of center. The man sits on the far side, to our left, and the woman, who appears to have her brown hair pulled up, sits facing away from us wearing a smoke-gray garment. A child wearing pink and pale blue sits to our right of the woman and seems to raise both arms. The ground is dotted with cream white and fog gray against the brown board on which this was painted. Steps lead up to a building at the back of the courtyard to the left, and the vine-covered wall stretches across the right two-thirds of the background. The artist signed the lower left corner, “E Vuilllard.”
Isaac and Rebecca, Known as ‘The Jewish Bride’
This vertical portrait painting shows a pale-skinned older woman wearing a full, long-sleeved black dress with a wide white ruff at her neck and white lace cuffs at her wrists. She sits in a curving, low-backed wood chair against a pale brown background. Her body and the chair are angled slightly to our left, and she looks directly at us. She has small eyes, pink, rounded cheeks, and a wide chin. Her lips are parted in a slight smile, and her hair is covered by a starched, sheer white cap that flares at the sides. The ruff around her neck is gathered in accordion-like, narrow figure-eight folds, and it extends flat and stiff, nearly to her shoulders. Close inspection reveals that the dress is woven with a black-on-black brocade pattern and has a line of small black buttons down the front. She holds a small brown leather book tooled with gold ornament in her right hand, on our left, and her other hand rests on the arm of the chair. She wears a gold ring on each hand. An inscription is painted to our left of her head: “AETAT SVAE 60 ANo 1633.”
Der Maler Theodor von Hörmann
The Siesta
Une odalisque, dite La grande odalisque
Vase of Flowers with Grasshopper, Marine Life, and Garden Rock
The great Jewish bride
The Milkmaid
Shown from the waist up in front of a black background, a young woman with pale white skin and curly brown hair looks directly out at us over her shoulder with her body angled to our left in this vertical portrait. She has dark brown eyes, a straight nose, smooth skin, and her pink lips are closed. Curls fall across her forehead but the rest of her hair is pulled up under a white lace scarf, called a mantilla. The mantilla is tucked under the wide orange and black shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She clasps her hands at her waist, and her hands and forearms are covered with long white gloves that disappear under the shawl.
In this portrait, Gauguin depicts the 13-year-old Tahitian girl Tehamana in a missionary dress holding a Samoan fan. A ripe mango alludes to fertility. In the background, Gauguin combined various non-European emblems—glyphs derived from an Easter Island tablet and a female deity inspired by Polynesian and Hindu sources—to build a generic sense of foreignness, transforming Tehamana into the embodiment of his own imagination.
An older girl and a younger child, both with pale skin, bend toward each other as they look at a book spread open on a wooden cupboard in this nearly square painting. Shown from the hips up to our right, the girl leans over the cupboard with her body facing our left in profile. She looks at the child peering over the low ledge at the back of the cupboard with her head tilted slightly in that direction. The older girl has a straight, delicate nose, her smooth cheeks are flushed, and her rosy-red lips are pursed. Her brown hair is tucked under a bright white, ruffled cap encircled with a gold and cranberry-red ribbon. The long sleeves of the muted sapphire-blue dress seem to have been rolled back along the forearms to reveal cascading, white cuffs. A translucent white neckerchief, like a short, full scarf, is tucked into an ivory-white apron that also covers the flaring skirt. With both hands on the open book, she points to one page with a metal pointer like a knitting needle. Facing us, the smaller child looks at the book from behind the wood cupboard, eyes downcast, resting one forearm on the surface and pointing to a detail in the book. The child has delicate brows, a short, wide nose, and full raspberry-red lips are closed. The padded cap the child wears covers the ears and is loosely painted with a pattern of honey brown, silvery white, and slate blue. The nutmeg-brown sleeves are pushed back along the forearm and there are white cuffs or sleeves beneath. The cupboard has two diamond-shaped, iron-gray metal pulls in front. Light illuminating the pair from our left creates a greenish glow on the tawny-brown background behind them.
We look slightly down at a woman with pale skin and two men with ruddy complexions sitting at a table near a railing overlooking a boat-clogged waterway in this horizontal painting. Only the corner of the table is visible in the lower right corner of the canvas. The woman sits next to one man on the far side of the table, and the third person leans onto the table from our right, along the edge of the composition. The table is covered with a dark, ruby-red, floral cloth. The red-haired woman wears a dark green dress and leans back, extending her right arm along the railing. Her back is to the river below, and she gazes directly ahead, to our right. The dark-haired, bearded man sitting to her left, our right, leans toward the cleanshaven, dark-haired man sitting across from him. That second man wears a cap, and he has a prominent nose and square jaw. Sailboats, rowboats, a steamship, and vessels of every size occupy much of the waterway. Rows of buildings extend along the river to our left and right, and trees line the distant horizon at the center of the painting. The river is a tan color and the pale blue sky is hazy.
Son of Prince de Joinville (Pierre Philippe Jean Marie d'Orleans)
Woman before an Aquarium
This painting depicts a green field of cotton plants with white blossoms. Three individuals are seen harvesting the cotton. They appear to be wearing skirts and bonnets and have dark skin, although their faces aren’t detailed. The background includes buildings on the left and green trees against a pale blue sky with hints of grey. The painting utilizes loose, visible brushstrokes. The color scheme is warm and natural, featuring shades of green, brown, and muted tones.
The Sofa
The Blue Boat
The Englishman (William Tom Warrener, 1861–1934) at the Moulin Rouge
The Child's Bath
Roses in a Vase
Chrysanthemums by the Water
Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth
William Merritt Chase was one of the most influential painters at the turn of the 20th century. In this painting, which probably depicts Brooklyn’s Tompkins Park, half the canvas is filled by the wide, empty walkway. Its strong diagonal borders carry the eye into the scene. This informal piece, capturing the sparkle of a summer day, affirms the fresh perspective Chase brought to painting scenes like this one.
Shown from the waist up, a young woman with pale, peachy skin faces and looks directly at us in this vertical portrait painting. The subtly upturned corners of her mouth and the outer corners of her eyes are touched with shadows. Her delicate eyebrows are faintly painted over dark brown eyes. She has a long straight nose and an oval-shaped face framed by large teardrop pearl earrings. Her dark brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a wide, gold-colored headdress, which creates a halo-like ring around her head. Precisely formed curls rest against her forehead over each temple. Her black dress has voluminous, puffy sleeves framing a sheer, butter-yellow panel covering her chest. White ruffles emerge at her neck and cuffs. A gold Maltese cross, which flares at the end of each arm, hangs from a thick gold chain that falls over her chest and down to her waist. She touches the chain with her left hand, on our right, and with the other she holds the body of a small furry brown animal with bared teeth. The background behind the woman is black down the center and a dark emerald-green curtain falls to either side.
Four women sit in a row outside in front of a balustrade and under leafy trees in this loosely painted, horizontal composition. The scene is created with dabs and visible strokes so details are difficult to make out. The women all wear long-sleeved, long-skirted gowns and hats. They hold parasols, and touches of pale green or white suggest gloves. They all have pale-toned skin, and their brown hair is up. The woman to our left wears a pale eucalyptus-green dress over a brick-red bodice. Her elbows are tucked into the cloak or jacket of the outer garment, and she holds a carnation-pink parasol with a few streaks of sky blue. The next woman wears a plum-purple dress with puff-shouldered sleeves and a veil that covers her hat and is gathered under her chin. Her parasol is pearl white. The next woman wears the same shade of carnation pink for her dress and holds a pale yellow parasol, and the fourth woman sits facing our left in profile. She wears a white dress and holds a powder-blue parasol. The shadows cast by the women and the four tree trunks and canopies behind them create muted purple shadows on an apricot-orange ground. Beyond the balustrade, stretches of very pale green, indigo purple, and icy blue suggest grass, a row of trees, and the sky. The texture of the canvas is visible between the forms, like between the edges of the balustrades and the green that fills in the gaps between or around the women’s clothing. The artist signed the lower left corner, “PRENDERGAST.”
Sunflowers