Provenance

Andrew W. Mellon

American, 1855 - 1937

Explore Selected Works

See all 103 works of art
A woman with pale, smooth skin stands wearing a loosely draped, champagne-peach dress in this vertical portrait painting. Her body faces us but she turns her head to look down and off to our right with brown eyes. She has dark brows, an upturned nose, and her carnation-red lips are closed in a slight smile. Her ash-brown hair is loosely pulled up so it sweeps back from her face, while thick curls cascade down her neck and over her shoulders. Her long sleeved, floor-length dress is tied at her waist with a sage-green sash. Gossamer-white fabric drapes around her upper arms, and she holds the long ends in both hands. Her right elbow, to our left, rests on the high base of columns that rise behind her and off the top edge of the canvas. A rust-red curtain drapes down from the top of the painting, over the columns. To our right, beyond the columns, the landscape opens to a view of trees beneath a blue sky with white puffy clouds.
Thomas Gainsborough, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, 1783, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.93

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Thomas Gainsborough · 1783 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.93

A woman and child are carved in low relief from a white marble, vertically oriented, rectangular panel, which is set within a painted wood frame. The woman’s body is angled to our right, and she looks down in that direction at the child seated on her lap. She has a long, delicate nose, a pointed chin, and her lips are closed. Her wavy hair is pulled back under a cloth that covers her heads and drapes over her shoulders. Her cloak waves in lively but shallow folds across the surface of the marble. She rests the long fingers of one hand on the baby’s shin and braces his side torso with the other. The nude boy has short, curly hair, round cheeks, chubby proportions, and his lips are parted. He holds a cylindrical object in one hand and reaches his right hand, to our left, to touch the woman’s clothing near her neckline. They both have flat, disk-like halos. The background is lightly carved to resemble an arched niche with leafy and geometric patterns and a leafy garland hanging from loops at the top corners. The marble panel is rounded at the top to encompass the woman’s halo and the top of her head. The frame is painted with stylized flowers and patterns in dark red, sky blue, ivory white, and black against a muted white background. Some of the stepped molding in the frame is gilded. A band across the top of the frame has roundels with two haloed women to either side and a nude baby carrying a cross over one shoulder, appearing to float against a blue background. Three roundels in a band below show women with long hair and halos, each holding objects like palm fronds, a plate, wheel, and a book.
Anonymous Artist, Madonna and Child, 1460s or later, marble, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.116

Madonna and Child

Anonymous Artist · 1460s or later · marble ·  Accession ID  1937.1.116

An armored man riding a white horse cuts his scarlet-red cloak in half using his sword in this loosely painted, vertical panel. The horse walks angled to our left, and a kneeling, bare chested person to the right holds both hands up and grips the other end of the cloak. A woman, a bearded, bald man, child, and baby are clustered behind the kneeling man. The baby sleeps in the woman’s arms, but she and the other child look up at the man on horseback, Saint Martin. The end of a staff or crutch and a shallow wooden bowl are by the kneeling person’s feet. Saint Martin’s silver armor gleams with gold decoration. He and all the others have pale, peach-toned skin. Saint Martin has chin-length, curly brown hair and wears a red cap with a white feather. Two more people on horseback are behind Saint Martin, and the trio rides under an arch twined with some brown vines. A church is visible in the distance through the arch.
Jan Boeckhorst, Saint Martin Dividing His Cloak, c. 1640/1645, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.107

Saint Martin Dividing His Cloak

Jan Boeckhorst · c. 1640/1645 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1970.17.107

Franklin C. Courter, Lincoln and His Son, Tad, c. 1929, oil on hardboard, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1954.1.2

Lincoln and His Son, Tad

Franklin C. Courter · c. 1929 · oil on hardboard ·  Accession ID  1954.1.2

A pale-skinned woman is shown from the waist up within an oval opening in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our right, but she turns her face to look off to our left with gray eyes. She has a thin, oval-shaped face, a long nose, and her dark pink lips are closed. Her ash-brown hair is swept up and back from her forehead, and some curls hang down the back of her neck. A sheer veil drapes over her hair and down around her sloping shoulders. The bodice of her ivory-yellow gown is cut low and lined with lace. Pearls ornament the front of the dress and part of the sleeve closer to us, and an aquamarine-blue cloth with gold touches is tied around her waist. The corners around the oval opening are painted to look like wood in shades of warm brown. The background behind the woman is nearly black to our left and it lightens to earthy brown to the right. The portrait is loosely painted, especially in the hair, clothing, and background.
Thomas Gainsborough, Mrs. John Taylor, c. 1778, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.100

Mrs. John Taylor

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1778 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.100

From a rocky shoreline, we look on several light-skinned people working by the sea with a boat and a net in this freely painted, almost square seascape. The scene is framed by a silhouette of low boulders along the lower right corner, and a towering cream-white rock rising two-thirds of the way up the composition to our left. Scrubby, celery-green vegetation grows on the rocky outcropping. Near the center, close to the towering white rocks, three people sit, reaching for something near one end of a boat while a fourth person braces against the rock, presumably to push the boat out to the sea. Closer to us, three people on the shore work with a net. Two stand with the net hooked over their shoulders, and a third person crouches in the water with head down. The people all wear simple shirts and pants in shades of tan, mustard yellow, burnt orange, and pale blue. All but two wear hats. The sea meets the shore with frothy white foam and cresting, low waves. The sea beyond fades from pale sage green to arctic blue along the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. Two sail boats tilt against the wind in the distance. Pale, smoky lavender-purple clouds drift across the ice-blue sky.
Thomas Gainsborough, Seashore with Fishermen, c. 1781/1782, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.121

Seashore with Fishermen

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1781/1782 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.121

Shown from the thighs up against a dark background, a man with light skin, wearing a black satin jerkin with puffed breeches, stands with his hand on the neck of a dog by his side in this vertical portrait painting. The man stands with his body angled to our right but looks at us from the corners of his dark eyes. His brows are subtly raised, and his cheeks are slightly sunken under high cheekbones. His red hair is cut short, and his red mustache and beard are trimmed. The high collar of his black jacket is lined with a white ruffle along his chin line. Light from our left glints off the long sleeves of his tight-fitting jacket, creating the impression that it is made of heavy silk. Two thick gold chains hang down his chest, and a sword hangs from a belt around his waist, the hilt on the hip farther from us. His pants puff out and gather on the mid-thigh over stockings. He hooks the thumb of his right hand, on our left, around his hip and he rests his other hand on the neck of the dog standing by his left side, to our right. The dark brown dog has a white stripe down its nose. It faces our left in profile but its brown eyes look toward us. On the collar, ornate metal bosses alternate with low spikes, set in a wide black band. A ring hangs from the front of the collar. Barely legible, the painting is signed and dated in the upper left corner with dark paint: “Antonius mor pingebat a. 1569.”
Antonis Mor, Portrait of a Gentleman, 1569, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.52

Portrait of a Gentleman

Antonis Mor · 1569 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.52

American 19th Century, Abraham Lincoln, c. 1864 or after, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1947.17.67

Abraham Lincoln

American 19th Century · c. 1864 or after · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1947.17.67

A pale-skinned woman sits on a red velvet chair, which is almost entirely hidden by her voluminous, dark emerald-green and gold gown, in this vertical portrait painting. The woman sits in the center of a shadowed, cavernous space, and her body and dress nearly fill the composition. Her body is turned slightly to our right, and she looks at us from the corners of her large, dark eyes. She has a round face, slightly flushed cheeks, and her full, rose-pink lips are closed. Her tawny-brown hair is pulled back under a headband that glints silver over her right ear, to our left. A goldenrod-yellow flower is tucked into her hair near that spot. Her tall, gossamer lace ruff collar is pleated into figure-eights, and it spans the width of her shoulders. Dots of white paint suggest detailing along the pleated edges. The fabric of her gown is so dark green that it appears black in some places, and it is decorated with bands of gold embroidery down the front of the bodice and full skirt, and around the bottom hem. A cape-like garment splits over long, puffy sleeves, which end with pleated, fog-gray fabric at the wrist. The cape and sleeves are densely ornamented with vegetal designs in glimmering gold. She rests her left elbow, on our right, on the arm of her chair so her hand rests palm up, near her waist. The other hand hangs off the end of the other arm of the chair, which is covered by her sleeve. A closed, black and gold fan hangs on a gold chain near that hand. Her skirt brushes the carpet, which is patterned with floral designs in ruby red, mustard yellow, and charcoal gray. The only parts of the chair that we see are a gold orb finial over her right shoulder, to our left, and the velvet-covered arm of the chair on the opposite side. Above the woman to our right hangs the edge of a muted gold curtain. The woman is lit from behind us, and the space around her is largely swallowed in shadow. Another curtain is lifted in the room behind her. Through it, we look out onto a landscape with a stone tower and buildings under a sky swirled with parchment brown, steel gray, and a sweep of brick red.
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Marchesa Balbi, c. 1623, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.49

Marchesa Balbi

Sir Anthony van Dyck · c. 1623 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.49

John Hoppner, The Frankland Sisters, 1795, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.111

The Frankland Sisters

John Hoppner · 1795 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.111

Bibliography

1973

  • Finley, David. A Standard of Excellence. Washington, 1973.

1974

  • Walker, John. Self-Portrait with Donors. Boston, 1974: 102-132.

1978

  • Koskoff, David E. The Mellons: The Chronicle of America's Richest Family. New York, 1978

2003

  • Minty, Nancy T. Dutch and Flemish Seventeeth-Century Art in America, 1800-1940: Collections, Connoisseurship and Perceptions. Ph.D. diss, New York University, 2003:255-280, 670-688

2006

  • Cannadine, David. Mellon: an American life. New York, 2006