Provenance

Asher Wertheimer

British, died 1918

Explore Selected Works

Shown from the knees up, a woman sits looking off into the distance in front of a deep, shadowy landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled slightly to our right, but she turns her oval face to the left to gaze off with brown eyes. Her upper lip is thin, and her lower lip is fuller. A cloud of ash-brown curls frames her face, and long locks fall over her shoulders. Her wide-brimmed black hat is set at a steep angle to our left. The hat has a white feather lying along the front edge and a pearl hanging from the top front of the brim. Her butter-yellow gown has translucent white ruffles along the low, scooped neckline and a strand of pearls tied at in a bow at the front of the chest. The puffy sleeves come just past the elbows and are similarly lined with ruffles and encircled with pearls. The overskirt drapes over a topaz-blue underskirt. The woman holds a feather in the hand resting in her lap. Her left elbow, to our right, is propped on a stone and that hand holds a gold-colored scarf up by her face. Deeply shaded trees and a murky blue sky fill the background. The portrait is loosely painted in the clothing and background.
Thomas Gainsborough, Frances Susanna, Lady de Dunstanville, c. 1786, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.706

Frances Susanna, Lady de Dunstanville

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1786 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.79.706

Gainsborough Dupont, George IV as Prince of Wales, 1781, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.98

George IV as Prince of Wales

Gainsborough Dupont · 1781 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.98

Light pours over a woman floating in front of a bank of clouds, surrounded by ten mostly nude, toddler-like winged putti in this vertical painting. The woman, Mary, and the putti all have pale, peachy skin. Mary's body faces us with her knees bent so her feet are lost in the clouds. She holds both hands out by her sides, palms facing out. Her head is tipped slightly back and to our right, and she looks up with light brown eyes, her pink lips parted. Her golden hair falls loosely in waves to her shoulders. Her pale blue, long-sleeved, voluminous garment is tied with a navy-blue ribbon that crosses her chest between her breasts and is presumably tied across her back. The ten child-like putti have rounded bellies, chubby limbs, and small, gold or silver wings at their shoulder blades. Five putti hover around Mary to each side. To our left, one putto plays with the end of Mary's blue ribbon while below, another holds a wooden cross near the lower left corner of the canvas. The putto holding the cross rests one foot on an iron-gray ball encircled with a gold band and topped with a gold cross. Another putto touches the top of the wooden cross and gestures toward Mary. Near her shoulder, one putto holds a ring of thorns above its head while another raises a ring of pink roses as if to place it on Mary's head. To our right, near Mary's head, a putto holds a piece of cloth like a handkerchief toward her face while one below holds a larger drapery around its head like a hooded cloak as it looks out at us and smiles. The two bottom-most putti hold Mary's fluttering dress and look up at her face. A streak of warm light pours down from the top center, casting yellow light on the tops of the powder-blue clouds.
Sir Anthony van Dyck, The Virgin as Intercessor, 1628/1629, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.88

The Virgin as Intercessor

Sir Anthony van Dyck · 1628/1629 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.88

Thomas Gainsborough, Francis Basset, Lord de Dunstanville, c. 1786, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.705

Francis Basset, Lord de Dunstanville

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1786 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.79.705

George Romney, Sir William Hamilton, 1783-1784, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.133

Sir William Hamilton

George Romney · 1783-1784 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.17.133

A man, woman, several children, a dog, and a chicken work and play outside a two-story, partially vine-covered, brown brick house in this vertical painting. All the people have peachy, light skin. We look slightly down onto a courtyard enclosed by the house to our right and a wall along the back of the yard, a short distance from us. To our right and closest to us, laundry dries on a line over a pile of branches, cast off bricks, and a wooden shovel near the lower right corner. A young girl wearing a white bonnet, a royal-blue shirt, and a long, harvest-yellow skirt sits on the dirt ground, leaning toward a little boy holding the paws of a black and white dog that stands on its hind legs. A broom leans against a fenced-in chicken coop behind the boy, and a bunch of carrots rests on the flat roof of the coop. Beyond the children, a woman sits hunched on a rushed chair, cleaning mussels taken from a wooden bucket and placed in an earthenware dish. A bearded man leans in the open doorway in the courtyard wall looking at the woman and a young girl helps a toddler stand nearby, as a chicken pecks at the ground. The roof slouches atop the brick house along the top edge of the canvas to our right, and the peak of another roof and trees rise above the courtyard wall. Fluffy white clouds float across the bright blue sky in the upper right corner. The artist signed and dated the work in dark paint in the lower center: “Av. Ostade 1673.”
Adriaen van Ostade, The Cottage Dooryard, 1673, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.48

The Cottage Dooryard

Adriaen van Ostade · 1673 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.48

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater, On the Terrace, c. 1730/1735, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William D. Vogel in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Harmon Booth, 1955.3.1

On the Terrace

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater · c. 1730/1735 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1955.3.1

Warm light coming from the left illuminates four men standing in pairs on either side of a dirt road that winds between rocky, tree-studded hills and a misty river in this almost square landscape painting. The trees have tall, gnarled, brown trunks with high canopies of sage, olive, and forest green while others have golden yellow leaves. The road curves in a C-shape along the foot of the hills that rise up the right side of the composition, their craggy faces painted in warm tones of sand, fawn, and caramel brown. Closest to us is rocky terrain covered with scrubby plants and two moss-covered trees growing next to a broken tree trunk that separates us from the men. The trees are just right of center and divide the scene vertically. The two men to the right of the tree rest among boulders next to the road. One sits and the other stands, and each holds a tall staff. A light-gray, bearded goat lies to the right of the men and closer inspection reveals another grazing nearby. On the left, one man sitting astride a donkey turns his head away from us to look at the man standing just behind him. The men are all simply dressed in knee-length breeches, shirts, and sleeveless coats in shades of brick red, ivory, and tan, or ginger brown, and wear tall, wide brimmed hats. A man driving cattle approaches them from farther back along the road. Beyond the tall trees near the center, the hills slope down to a winding river fringed with trees. The river flows into the distance, past headlands jutting into the water, and ends at a tall mountain rising from the low horizon. A thin wash of butter yellow creates a hazy glow over the river, headlands, and distant mountain. A pale robin's egg-blue sky scattered with petal-pink and dusty rose-colored clouds fills the top of the scene.
Jan Both, An Italianate Evening Landscape, c. 1650, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2000.91.1

An Italianate Evening Landscape

Jan Both · c. 1650 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2000.91.1

A river winds through forest-green trees and vegetation between rolling hills and mountains extending into the deep distance under a pale, orchid-purple sky in this nearly square landscape painting. Loose brushstrokes give this work a soft, hazy look. Closest to us, at the bottom center of the painting, dense foliage is created with touches of sage and pine green against a peanut-brown ground. Small in scale within the landscape, one person on horseback, two people on foot, and perhaps a dog cross an arched bridge spanning a narrow stream to our left of center. To our right of the bridge, a few round forms could be sheep or perhaps more indistinct plants. Nearby, a house is surrounded by tall trees at the base of a cliff that rises precipitously along the right edge of the canvas, and nearly reaches the top. At the center of the composition, the topaz-blue river widens as it winds into the distance beyond the bridge. Forests of dark green trees line the river along a mauve-pink mountain peak to our left. The trees, river, and more mountains become more indistinct farther in the distance. The horizon line comes just over halfway up the composition, and the sky is streaked with pale butter yellow over the mountain to our left, under pale purple clouds or haze above.
Thomas Gainsborough, Mountain Landscape with Bridge, c. 1783/1784, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.107

Mountain Landscape with Bridge

Thomas Gainsborough · c. 1783/1784 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.107

The face of a young woman with pale, peachy skin materializes from a deeply shadowed background in this vertical portrait painting. Shown from the waist up, her body is angled to our right, and her face turns to look at us. She has gray eyes, a rounded nose, and her pink lips are slightly parted. A golden veil covers long strawberry-blond hair and falls down over the shoulders of her dark dress. The dress has a high, white lace collar, and a gold chain hangs over her shoulders and on her chest. Painted mostly with deep browns and earth tones, the light that falls on her face and hair creates an aura-like effect.
Rembrandt van Rijn, Saskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist, probably begun 1634/1635 and completed 1638/1640, oil on panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.71

Saskia van Uylenburgh, the Wife of the Artist

Rembrandt van Rijn · probably begun 1634/1635 and completed 1638/1640 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.71

Bibliography

1918

  • "Asher Wertheimer Dead." The New York Times (11 September 1918): 13.