Provenance

Carstairs Gallery

est. 1934

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Shown from the knees up, an older man sits next to a black, curly-haired poodle on a rough-hewn, stone chair against a vibrant, indigo-blue sky in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s torso is angled slightly to our right but his left leg crosses over his other knee so his legs angle toward us. He looks at us with silvery-blue eyes under gray brows. He has a wide nose, thin, pink lips set in line, and a square jaw. A pale area above his upper lip could be a closely cropped mustache. Wrinkles surround his eyes and line his cheeks and jawline. He wears black trousers and a maroon-red jacket with wide, black lapels and cuffs over an eggshell-white shirt and tie, which is pinned with a silver ball. His right elbow rests on the arm of the chair so his hand rests in his lap. He wears a gold ring on the pinky finger of his other hand, which wraps around the dog’s body. The dog faces and looks at us with gold-rimmed brown eyes, and the dog’s fur is highlighted with icy blue, suggesting a glossy coat. The man and dog sit on what appears to be a sand-brown rock in the general shape of a chair. Behind the man and far below, along the right edge of the canvas, the landscape plummets down to a bright blue body of water, which surrounds a flat-topped, rocky outcropping that comes up to the shoulder level of the man. A cylindrical structure with one window sits next to a line of trees atop the outcropping in the distance. The sky meets the water at the horizon, about a quarter of the way up the canvas, and deepens from arctic white around the outcropping and man to deep cobalt blue around the two gray clouds near the top corners of the painting. A streak of light angles from the cloud to our right down toward the man’s head. The painting is signed and dated at the front of the chair, under the man’s elbow, near the lower left corner: “Pour Chester Dale et Coco Mon Pape Innocent X de Velasquez Salvador Dalí 1958.”
Salvador Dalí, Chester Dale, 1958, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Collection, 1963.10.11

Chester Dale

Salvador Dalí · 1958 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.10.11

Jean-Charles Cazin, Paris Scene with Bridge, oil on wood, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.20

Paris Scene with Bridge

Jean-Charles Cazin · · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1970.17.20

This painting shows a gathering of people on a sandy area. The people are dressed in dark clothing and hats, some holding parasols. They are painted in broad, overlapping brushstrokes and have few visible details. Past the crowd of people, the horizon separates the sandy ground from the pale blue sky, with a strip of blue water in between. On the right, there is a small building or tent with a triangular roof and two flags on top, one of which is the French flag. There is another flagpole with the same two flags on the left, behind the tent. On the far right, there are more buildings and some green trees. The painting has loose and fluid brushstrokes, giving it an impressionistic quality.
Eugène Boudin, Beach House with Flags at Trouville, c. 1865, watercolor over graphite, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.74

Beach House with Flags at Trouville

Eugène Boudin · c. 1865 · watercolor over graphite ·  Accession ID  1985.64.74

We look slightly down onto a loosely painted scene with three ballerinas in rose-pink costumes and one man, wearing a black suit and top hat, against a backdrop made up of dabs and strokes of lime, mint, and pine green in this vertical painting. The people all appear to have light skin. The most defined person is the woman closest to us, shown from the knees up to the right of center. Her body is angled to our left, and her profile faces that direction. Dark eyelashes suggest her eyes are closed. She has a pointed nose, and her red lips are closed. Dark brown hair is pulled up into a large bun with a coral-pink flower tucked in at the back of her head. She grips opposite elbows at her waist, her arms close to her body. Her pink costume has a low-cut bodice with loops low over her shoulders and a flaring, knee-length tutu. She wears a black choker tied with a bow at the back of her neck and two black bands encircle her wrists. A touch of white at the ear we can see suggests a gold earring. To our right and cut off by the right edge of the painting, a man stands beyond the woman’s shoulder, in shadow as he looks onto the scene. His face is painted with taupe-gray strokes. His suit and top hat are black except for a narrow white collar at his neck. Beyond this pair and seen from the chest up between them, another woman in the same pink costume faces our right. A short distance from us to our left, a third ballerina stands facing away from us. The elephant-gray floor she stands on visually creates a vertical band up the left side of the composition. The rest of the space behind and around the man and dancers is painted loosely with shades of vibrant to muted greens, with a few dabs of pale pink. The painting has a narrow sand-brown border. The artist signed the work by incising into the green paint in the upper right corner, “Degas.”
Edgar Degas, Dancers Backstage, 1876/1883, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.25

Dancers Backstage

Edgar Degas · 1876/1883 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.25

Shown from the thighs up, a boy wearing a crimson-red waistcoat stands against swags of fabric painted with visible strokes in white, sky blue, harvest yellow, and sage green in this loosely painted, vertical portrait. Painted with choppy brushstrokes, the boy has pale, ivory-white skin, blushing pink cheeks, pursed lips, faint eyebrows, and topaz-blue eyes that gaze down to our right. His shoulder-length, dark brown hair is tucked behind one ear under a brown wide-brimmed hat. His red waistcoat is worn over a long-sleeved, slate-blue shirt. The collar of his skirt is slightly flipped up on his right side, to our left, and a swipe of cobalt blue suggests a tie or scarf between the lapels. A band of sapphire blue could be a belt above olive-green trousers, and dashes of navy blue create shadows. His right hand, to our left, is planted on that hip. The other arm hangs straight and loose by his side, those fingertips almost brushing the bottom edge of the canvas. The boy’s body is outlined in dark blue. The drapery behind him falls in folds that sweep gently to our right. The background is painted with patches and swipes of cool blues and greens, and pale golden yellow. One swag of the drapery, over the shoulder to our left, is painted with a loose pattern suggesting leaves. One back post and a sliver of the curving back of a wooden chair peeks into the composition in the lower left corner.
Paul Cezanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888-1890, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1995.47.5

Boy in a Red Waistcoat

Paul Cezanne · 1888-1890 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1995.47.5

Shown from the waist up, the profile of a pale-skinned woman wearing an ice-blue dress is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes in this vertical portrait. The woman’s body faces our right, and she looks slightly down with her pale pink lips parted. A floppy straw hat is tied over her copper-blond hair with a plum-purple ribbon and tied in a bow beneath her chin. The bow appears to be nearly as wide as her shoulders, and the ribbons hang down almost to her belly button. Her dress has a high, ruffled neckline along the back of the neck and long sleeves. A few flecks of lapis blue suggest polka dots, and a blue belt wraps around the waist. The background is especially loosely painted with strokes of aqua blue and bright, bottle green that suggest an outdoor setting and few touches of coral red in the lower corners could be flowers.
Berthe Morisot, Young Woman with a Straw Hat, 1884, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.49

Young Woman with a Straw Hat

Berthe Morisot · 1884 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.49

Verdant green fields roll in undulating waves back alongside a road in this horizontal landscape painting. The fields take up the left and center of the composition and are painted with thick, curling strokes of emerald, pea, and celery green, and corn yellow to suggest grasses and plants. The pale green road runs up along the right edge of the painting, and is layered with strokes and daubs in butter yellow, spring green, and faint blue. The fields and road meet the horizon line about halfway up the canvas, where an aquamarine-blue sky swirling with white and periwinkle-blue clouds fills the top half of the painting.
Vincent van Gogh, Green Wheat Fields, Auvers, 1890, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2013.122.1

Green Wheat Fields, Auvers

Vincent van Gogh · 1890 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2013.122.1

A man and woman stand in a sunny field near a line of cone-shaped haystacks under a massive blue sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. A muted blue shadow cuts across the flax-yellow ground close to us from our left. About a dozen golden-brown haystacks extend from the center of the composition off into the distance to our right. The people stand in the harvested field to our left. Tiny in scale, the woman wears a rose-pink dress and white apron and cap. She bends over as the man stands nearby, resting a scythe against one shoulder. He wears a white shirt, a dark vest and cap, and blue pants. The field beyond is verdant green, with more haystacks in the distance. Dark green trees line the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the painting. Lavender purple, blush-pink, and white clouds trundle across the ice-blue sky above. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “C. Pissarro, 1873.”
Camille Pissarro, Landscape, Ile-de-France, 1873, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 2014.18.40

Landscape, Ile-de-France

Camille Pissarro · 1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.18.40

A young woman with peachy skin shaded with ice blue and pale, mint green is shown from the chest up wearing a low-cut, white garment in this vertical portrait painting. The painting is created with blended brushstrokes, giving it a soft, blurred effect. The woman’s body is angled to our left and she looks off in that direction with blue eyes, her head tipped a little toward us. She has a straight nose and full, rosy pink lips. Thick, blond bangs sweep across her forehead, and her hair is partially pulled back. She holds one long lock with her left hand, on our right, in front of her shoulder. One small gold ball earring adorns the ear we can see. Her low-cut, white garment falls off her shoulders and is belted with a blue sash at her waist. The background is made up of a field of royal and turquoise blue behind her head and shoulders, and rust brown behind her body. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower left corner: “Renoir.76.”
Auguste Renoir, Young Woman Braiding Her Hair, 1876, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.63

Young Woman Braiding Her Hair

Auguste Renoir · 1876 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.63

A French window with its sill lined with flowerpots opens into a view of boats floating in a body of water in this loosely painted, vibrantly colored, stylized, vertical painting. The doors open inward, and they are painted with coral orange and cranberry red. The wall behind the door to the left is peacock blue and the wall to our right is fuchsia pink, and those colors are reflected in the opposite windows of the doors. Three flowerpots in crimson red, marmalade orange, or royal blue sit on the windowsill in front of us. Foliage in the pots is painted with short strokes of cardinal red and turquoise blue. Over the window, a two-paned transom window pierces a forest-green wall. The view through the panes has a band of salmon pink across the top and dabs of celery green and banana yellow below. The dabs and dashes of pine and lime green continue down the sides of the window and across the sill, suggesting vines growing up around the opening. A band of ultramarine blue beyond the flowerpots could be a balcony. Several rust-orange masts of ships with hulls painted with swipes of indigo blue, flamingo pink, forest green, and marigold orange float in the water beyond. The water is painted with parallel strokes in pale pink and butter yellow. The sky above is painted with thick, wavy lines of steel blue, periwinkle purple, and seafoam green. The artist signed the work in red paint in the lower right, “Henri Matisse.”
Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.7

Open Window, Collioure

Henri Matisse · 1905 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1998.74.7