Provenance

Etienne Bignou

French

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This painting shows the upper body of a person who faces us, holding a small stringed instrument near their chest. They have a long face with pale skin, a round chin, high cheekbones, and deep-set eyes. Their expression is neutral as they appear to stare outward. They have short dark hair, partially covered by a large, pointed hat that extends out to each side past their ears. The person is wearing a colorful diamond-patterned outfit with a large white collar, the diamonds in shades of red, yellow, green, and black. The background consists of earthy brown tones, with a wall on the right and what may be brown stairs or a piece of furniture on the left.
André Derain, Harlequin, 1919, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.129

Harlequin

André Derain · 1919 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.129

Odilon Redon, Pansies, c. 1905, pastel on brown paper, Rosenwald Collection, Gift of the Adele R. Levy Fund, Inc., 1961.14.1

Pansies

Odilon Redon · c. 1905 · pastel on brown paper ·  Accession ID  1961.14.1

This painting depicts a young woman from the chest upwards, seated in a slightly turned position to the left. She has pale skin, reddish-brown hair styled back in a low bun, green eyes, and small pink lips that are slightly turned up at the ends. She is wearing a patterned garment with a plaid design in pink, light blue, and brown, featuring white trim around the neckline, along with some small black buttons. The background is a mottled gray with shades of light yellow and pale blue. The painting is signed "Corot" and dated "1859" in the bottom left corner.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1850 or 1859, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.9

Portrait of a Young Girl

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · 1850 or 1859 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.9

A young and older man, both with pale skin, stand next to each other in shadowy room looking at a piece of white paper held by the older man in this vertical painting. Light from the upper left falls across the men, and they take up most of the height of the composition. The paper is held by a balding, elderly man at the center of the painting. He wears a knee-length, dark brown jacket and trousers. His has a gray beard and hair, and thin black lines delineate his brows and trace the creases on his face. A younger man standing to our left has short black hair and ruddy skin. He tilts his head to gaze at the paper in the older man’s hands. The younger man wears a sage-green jacket, and his lower body is partially hidden by a wooden rack before him. The V-shaped rack supports an open, dark green portfolio folder, and the young man rests his hands on the edges of more sheets of paper there. There are two paintings hanging on the olive-green wall of the room to each side of the men, but they are loosely painted and deep in shadow, so the subjects are difficult to make out. Another aquamarine-blue folder rests against a red bed or sofa that runs along the back wall. A white, folded cloth sits on the sofa above the portfolio. The artist signed the lower left, “h. Daumier.”
Honoré Daumier, Advice to a Young Artist, 1865/1868, oil on canvas, Gift of Duncan Phillips, 1941.6.1

Advice to a Young Artist

Honoré Daumier · 1865/1868 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1941.6.1

This painting depicts a partially nude woman from the waist up. She is seated, facing us, wearing a bright blue headscarf that conceals her hair. There is a small black cross on her forehead. The woman has pale skin, dark eyes, and a neutral expression, and she wears with a necklace of round yellow ornaments. Her chest is bare, but a green fabric is wrapped around her waist. Her hands are clasped in her lap. The chair she sits on has yellow and olive-green stripes, and the wall behind her is tan, with red, leaf-patterned drapery on the right side.
Henri Matisse, Odalisque, Half-Length--The Tattoo, 1923, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.40

Odalisque, Half-Length--The Tattoo

Henri Matisse · 1923 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.40

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man wearing a ruffled collar and ornately decorated doublet looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders and face angle to our left, but he gazes steadily our way with bright blue eyes under low, thin brows. He has a straight nose with a rounded tip, and his coral-pink lips are closed under a faint suggestion of a mustache and perhaps a beard. His short brown hair is brushed back from his high forehead, and his white collar curls in figure eights high along his chin and up the back of his neck. His doublet is brown patterned with gold horizontal stripes lined with silver zig-zags. Flower-shaped buttons lead down the front of his doublet from a high collar, and a long gold chain falls out of view below the bottom edge of the painting. His ivory-white sleeves have slashes in rows of alternating diagonals separated by gold embroidery. The background is dark ash brown.
French 16th Century, Portrait of a Nobleman, c. 1570, oil on fir or pine, Chester Dale Collection, 1942.16.1

Portrait of a Nobleman

French 16th Century · c. 1570 · oil on fir or pine ·  Accession ID  1942.16.1

André Derain, Head of a Woman, 1926, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.20

Head of a Woman

André Derain · 1926 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.20

Shown from the waist up, pale-skinned young man wearing a bowler hat looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right, and he cuts his dark eyes back to look at us, his lips pursed. He has a wide face, round cheeks, and a narrow chin. His white lapels are flipped up, and he wears a buttoned blue jacket. The black bowler hat seems a little too small for his head. The man and setting are painted with areas of mottled, streaked color. For instance, his peachy face is shaded with visible strokes of slate blue. His white collar is a blend of ice blue and frosty green, and his jacket is built up with daubs and strokes of marine blue, moss green, and gray. The white of the canvas underneath shows through in some areas, especially in the jacket. The wrist of one hand resting in the man’s lap is visible, and the back rail of the wooden chair in which he sits peeks out past the shoulder to our left. The wall behind him is painted loosely with the suggestion of a diamond pattern in laurel and olive green, parchment brown, rust orange, and muted blue. A rail or frame running close and parallel to the right edge of the canvas is patterned with elongated red teardrop shapes outlined by white, against a celestial-blue background.
Paul Cezanne, The Artist's Son, Paul, 1886-1887, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.100

The Artist's Son, Paul

Paul Cezanne · 1886-1887 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.100

This is a painting of a dim street with several people carrying sacks. The people wear long skirts and aprons in dark colors, and their large sacks are filled with white cloth. The people are bent over under the weight of the sacks. They walk across a cobblestone street in front of a building with a lit interior and blue wallpaper. On the right side of the painting is another street with more buildings and a carriage where people appear to pass up their sacks to a person on top.
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, The Laundresses, 1899, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1954.4.4

The Laundresses

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen · 1899 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1954.4.4

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned, bearded man dressed in black gazes at us in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he looks at us from the corners of his hazel eyes under thick brows. He has close-cut, dark brown hair, a short nose, a trimmed beard, and a bushy moustache over pale pink lips, which are closed. He wears a voluminous velvet-black cloak trimmed with sable-brown fur, and his far arm rests on a stone ledge under a window. The face of the ledge is carved in relief with leaves. The man’s other arm hangs by his side, and he holds a brown glove in that hand. A celery-green drapery behind him fills the right half of the background. A short span of wall leads to a window to the left, through which a deep landscape is painted in tones of tan, gold, and bronze brown. Hills, a fence, stairs, what might be aqueducts, and a castle-like complex are nestled against tall hills under a white sky shaded with light tan clouds.
Jacopo Tintoretto, Maarten de Vos, Portrait of a Man with a Landscape View, 1552/1556, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1943.7.10

Portrait of a Man with a Landscape View

Jacopo Tintoretto, Maarten de Vos · 1552/1556 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.7.10

Bibliography

1976

  • Cooper, Douglas, introduction. Alex Reid & Lefevre 1926-1976. London, 1976