Provenance

Nicolas Auguste Hazard

French, 1834 - 1913

Explore selected works

Moss-green land rising to a tree-topped bluff follows the curve of a sandy beach surrounding a pale blue cove in this horizontal landscape painting. The hill and olive-green trees take up most of the height of the left side of the composition. The beach curves from the lower right corner back and to our left, and curves around the cliff face of the bluff. Closest to us, the land is flecked with saffron gold, and two dark brown patches smear the sand. The beach or a sandbar creates a strip of pale brown across the horizon, which comes halfway up the canvas. Distant hills to our left are suggested by a battleship-gray slope. The slate-blue sky above is layered with swirls and bands of oyster-white and pewter-gray clouds. The artist signed the lower left, “COROT.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Beach near Etretat, c. 1872, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.117

Beach near Etretat

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · c. 1872 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.117

We look down on a few dozen people walking along the sidewalks of a wide, sunlit bridge in this almost square painting. The scene is loosely painted, which gives it a hazy, sun-dappled look and makes some details indistinct. The people wear black, white, light blue, or pale green jackets and pants or long dresses as they walk in all directions. Some wear hats, and a few women carry parasols. The bridge opens into a wide boulevard close to us, as the sidewalks angle into the lower corners of the composition. Several horse-drawn carriages move across the bridge alongside the people. The deck of the oyster-white bridge is lined with black gas lamps. The river beneath shimmers with lapis and turquoise blue. The far side is packed with four and five-story buildings, which are mostly tan with rows of windows painted as blue rectangles. The rooflines bristle with chimneys. Another structure or boat sits on the water near the lower right corner of the painting, and a flag with vertical bands of red, white, and blue flies from a flagpole there. Opposite the flag, on the far bank, is a statue of a man on a horse, both on a tall plinth. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and the azure-blue sky above is dotted with puffy white clouds tinged with dove gray and mauve. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “A. Renoir. 72.”
Auguste Renoir, Pont Neuf, Paris, 1872, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.58

Pont Neuf, Paris

Auguste Renoir · 1872 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.58

Eugène Delacroix, A Blacksmith (Un Forgeron), 1833, aquatint and drypoint on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1958.8.14

A Blacksmith (Un Forgeron)

Eugène Delacroix · 1833 · aquatint and drypoint on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1958.8.14

Bibliography

1989

  • Distel, Anne. Les collectionneurs des impressionists: Amateurs et marchands. Paris, 1989:174-175