Provenance

Marie N. Harriman

Whitney, Cornelius Vanderbilt Mrs.

American, 1903 - 1970

Explore selected works

This painting shows a woman sitting upright in a yellow-and-tan reclining chair, her body turned to the right, her face turned toward us. Her skin is pale, with shades of pale yellow and light pink, and shadows in a pale green shade. She has deep-set brown eyes, arched eyebrows, and a small pink mouth set in a neutral expression. Her curling hair is light purple and put in an updo. She is wearing a white and lilac polka-dot blouse with puffy sleeves, complemented by a long skirt with stripes of black, gray, and green. In her lap, she holds a small black, tan, and light-green dog, cradling it gently with both hands. The background features a grassy area enclosed by a wooden fence painted with lines of green, teal, and dark red, with a large, slightly bent tree trunk visible to the left. The sky above has a cloudy appearance made by crisscrossing lines of white, purple, pink, and green. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible, especially those in the background. In some places, like the fence, the tree trunk, and the back of the chair, the light brown surface under the paint is visible.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Lady with a Dog, 1891, oil on cardboard, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.22

Lady with a Dog

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · 1891 · oil on cardboard ·  Accession ID  1972.9.22

A stocky, muscular man with his face painted white and wearing a skin-tight, oyster-white costume sits on a wooden chair, leaning forward toward us with his elbows resting on his knees in this vertical painting. The man nearly fills the canvas, and his feet are cropped by the bottom edge. His body is angled slightly to our left with his knees spread wide, but he looks out at us. He wears a pale, beige-colored cap and his cream-white bodysuit may have a loosely painted, wide collar. His nearly straight eyebrows and closed lips are painted black, and his narrow gray eyes are outlined in black, against the white oval of his painted face. His clasped hands, ears, and his skin visible along the edges of his makeup are pale peach. The background is earth brown. The artist signed and dated the work with red paint between one of the man’s legs and the leg of the chair, near the lower center: “Walt Kuhn 1929.”
Walt Kuhn, The White Clown, 1929, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.16

The White Clown

Walt Kuhn · 1929 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.9.16

In this painting, a large wooden basket filled with bright green apples is in the top left, accompanied by a wooden shovel and loose apples scattered around the center and the right. The scoop of the shovel is to the left, below the basket, while the handle stretches towards the right. Apples are spilled around it onto the reddish-brown surface below, which is partly covered by a blue cloth. The color palette includes earthy tones of brown, muted blue from the draped cloth, and vibrant greens from the apples, set against a black background. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.
Walt Kuhn, Green Apples and Scoop, 1939, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.14

Green Apples and Scoop

Walt Kuhn · 1939 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.9.14

Green hills roll back to a turquoise-blue sea in this almost square painting. The scene is built with layers of small dots in lavender, lilac, cool blue, warm green, yellow, and peach. The hill angles from nearly the top left corner of the canvas to the lower right, filling the bottom left half of the canvas. It is mostly variegated shades of green but there are two cliff-like, purple surfaces to our left and a lighter patch of yellow to our right. A pole and a cross-shaped structure atop the hill to the left could be utility poles. An object on the water in the distance to our right may be a buoy or a boat. Peach lines the horizon, which comes just over halfway up the composition, and straw yellow and cornflower blue ripple across the sky above.
Georges Seurat, Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, 1888, oil on canvas, Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation in memory of Marie N. Harriman, 1972.9.21

Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy

Georges Seurat · 1888 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1972.9.21

Bibliography

1970

  • The New York Times 27 September 1970 87:1 [obituary]

1999

  • Yeide, Nancy H. "The Marie Harriman Gallery." Archives of American Art Journal 39, nos. 1-2 (1999):2-11.