Provenance

Marie-Caroline-Ferdinande-Louise de Naples, duchesse de Berry

Berry Duchesse de
Berry, Marie-Charlotte, Duchesse de

1798 - 1870

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A group of pale-skinned men, women, and children along with a few horses and dogs form a loose line across a dirt road, which is flanked with rows of buildings on both sides that converge in the tree-filled distance in this horizontal painting. The scene is painted mostly with sage and moss green, peanut and caramel brown, cream white, and black. Most of the people wear hats or caps. The women wear long dresses and the men wear jackets and pants. One man wearing a black jacket with buttons down the front, and with white at the neck and cuffs, leans down from atop a black horse at the center of the group. Another man with a tall, cream-white, brimmed hat and white collar stands behind a dappled horse to our right of center. Men, women, and children, most wearing tattered and worn clothing, look on. One woman to our left holds a baby strapped to her back and others gather around the horses. A pair of men in front of a stone building to our right smoke long, white, tobacco pipes. Others peer out of the open door and windows. An illegible wooden sign hangs above the door. Leafy vines grow over parts of the building façade. To our left, a woman sits on the ground and holds a spindle as she winds wool with a spinning frame. A man leans down over her shoulder, and a child looks away from us, into a fenced enclosure in front of a building. People, horses, dogs, and chickens are scattered along the road into the distance, and a church steeple rises against the ivory-white clouds in the sky beyond. A partial inscription with the artist’s name and date appears in black paint in the lower right corner: “Isack van Os 164.”
Isack van Ostade, The Halt at the Inn, 1645, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.49

The Halt at the Inn

Isack van Ostade · 1645 · oil on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.49

We look across a dirt road or path at a tall, brick wall flanking an ornamented, stone gateway with a white, marble manor house in the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Atop a low hill, the sunlit manor is outlined against a vivid, light blue sky with silvery-gray, fluffy clouds, which fills the top two-thirds of the composition. Statues line the gray, tiled roofline along the central section of the house, and more statues stand in the grassy lawn to either side. Closer to us, the gateway and people around it are cast into shadow. The arched gate is flanked by flat columns and is topped with a triangular pediment filled with relief sculpture of people and ornamental scrolls. A ramp leads up to the opening of the gate. Two men passing under the arch have long, brown hair and wear brimmed hats, long coats, breeches tied at the knee, and stockings. The man in front carries a walking stick. A woman wearing a white head covering and long, dark dress, carries a baby tied to her back and holds her hand out toward the men. Near the men, three brown dogs walk as one raises a leg against the gate, and a fourth sniffs at the side of the ramp where it meets the ground. The red brick wall is topped with a balustrade. To our left of the gate and on the far side of the wall, two men lean on the balustrade, angled in toward each other as if in conversation, near a fountain with a sculpted woman on an ornamental urn. Below them, at the foot of the brick wall, a man sits on a cracked piece of marble sculpted with ornamental designs in low relief. The man wears a royal-blue suit with golden yellow stockings and a tan, brimmed hat. He leans forward to touch the collar of a long-legged, slender dog while four other dogs stand, sit, and lie down nearby. To our right, the roofline of a large, red brick building is seen over the tops of a grove of trees on the far side of the wall. The painting style throughout is detailed and precise, so one could conceivably count the individual bricks in the wall, for instance.
Jan van der Heyden, An Architectural Fantasy, c. 1670, oil on oak panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1968.13.1

An Architectural Fantasy

Jan van der Heyden · c. 1670 · oil on oak panel ·  Accession ID  1968.13.1

Fourteen men, women, and children focus their attention on a man fanning out a deck of cards in a town street in the right half of this horizontal painting. More men and women stand in small groups or walk in the left half. The women wear bonnets and long dresses and cloaks. The men wear jackets, slacks, and hats. The people all have pale or peachy skin. The man holding out the cards wears a plumed, bicorn hat, a thick white scarf around his neck, and a long, dark coat. His long gray hair is looped into a knot on his upper back, and a thick white sideburn curls along the cheek we see. He has a prominent nose, thin mustache, and his lips are parted as he faces our left in profile. Glints of gold on his hat and back of his coat could be bells, and he wears a gold hoop earring. A young woman with smooth skin, a low-cut, very pale green dress and matching bonnet reaches out to take a card. Another wearing a mob cap and cloak stands at her far shoulder, and two children stand between her and the cardsharp. A pair of young boys stand with the cardsharp, facing away from us and looking down at the cards. More men and women in earth-toned clothes, some tattered, gather in a tight cluster around a wooden table beyond this grouping. On the table is a metal cup and some glass balls, perhaps marbles. A small, furry, brown dog sits and looks up and to the right with dark eyes in the bottom right corner of the painting. This group is backed by a high wall, presumably enclosing a private garden. Trees reach into the cloud-streaked blue sky beyond the wall. Two more dogs walk among the townspeople who move along the street to the left. Building facades on the far side of the walkway are in shadow, but one is labeled Patissier. The artist signed and dated the painting near the lower left corner, “L. Boilly 1806.”
Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Card Sharp on the Boulevard, 1806, oil on wood, Gift of Victoria and Roger Sant, 2000.5.1

The Card Sharp on the Boulevard

Louis-Léopold Boilly · 1806 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  2000.5.1

Bibliography

1913

  • Frimmel, Theodor von. Lexicon der Wiener Gemaeldesammlungen. 2 vols. Munich, 1913-1914:I:105-106