Provenance

Thomas McLean

active late 19th century

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A woman leans forward to trace the shadow cast by a sleeping young man on a wall in a dimly lit room in this horizontal painting. Both people have smooth, pale skin, long, straight noses, thin lips, and brown hair. The man sits and sleeps on a deep, wood chair. The scene is lit from over our left shoulder so he casts a shadow on the brown wall on which he leans. His right arm, closer to us, hangs by his side with his palm turned to face away from his body. The other arm lies across his bent knee. He wears a harvest-yellow tunic, and a sapphire-blue cloak drapes over his far arm and the thigh closer to us. A long spear rests across one shoulder, and a thin, muted-brown dog, like a greyhound, sleeps on the ground by the man’s side. The woman leans one knee onto the chair and reaches out with a stylus to capture the man’s shadow. She is barefoot and smiles gently at his face. She also wears a dark yellow dress, which exposes one bare shoulder. A mauve-pink cloth wraps over one shoulder and the bent thigh. A deep red curtain bunched up in the upper left corner hides the light source. An urn, nearly as tall as the chair, stands behind the man and another is tipped over behind the woman. An arched opening leads into a darkened room to our right. Rectangles of red and white seen through the top of a pointed arched window there are difficult to interpret. A table and some shelves with more urns are deep in the shadows.
Joseph Wright, The Corinthian Maid, 1782-1784, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1983.1.46

The Corinthian Maid

Joseph Wright · 1782-1784 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.46

Shown from the lap up and shaded entirely in tones of golden yellow, laurel green, and black, a pale-skinned woman cradles a small, furry dog in her arms in this vertical portrait. The woman’s body is squared toward us, and she looks directly out with slate-blue eyes. She has an oval face with a delicate nose, long chin, and her pale pink lips are closed in a slight smile. Her brown hair is pulled back under a tan-colored hat lined on the underside with translucent cloth and on the top with sage-green ribbons or ruffles. A choker of thumbnail-sized pearls encircles her neck. Her dress has a deep V in the front and the elbow-length sleeves end with layers of lacy ruffles. Curving black lines suggest a pattern on sheer black fabric that covers pale yellow and frosty green stripes of the bodice. The dog has long, light-colored fur and a dark, bead-like nose and eyes. Vines grow up and from the top of a stone column in the background to the right, and the rest of the shallow space is filled with shrubs and plants. A bright yellow spot near the top left corner suggests a strong light source coming from that area, which casts her face in a diffuse shadow under the hat’s brim.
Anonymous Artist, Miss Nelly O'Brien, early to mid nineteenth century, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.76

Miss Nelly O'Brien

Anonymous Artist · early to mid nineteenth century · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.76