Sale, England

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Anonymous Artist, Old Woman Plucking a Fowl, 1650/1655, oil on canvas, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Timme, 1956.1.1

Old Woman Plucking a Fowl

Anonymous Artist · 1650/1655 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.1.1

We look across a stream and through a loose screen of shadowy trees at a sunlit farm under a powder-blue sky with towering, puffy clouds in this vertical landscape painting. The ground and stream closest to us are painted in tones of olive green, sepia and earth brown, black, and slate gray. Nearly lost in shadow, a group of six people gathers at the water’s edge in the lower left. Small in scale within the composition, they wear brick-red, gray, or caramel-brown garments. Beyond them, a low picket fence winds through and between a loose band of shadowy trees, which are painted with gnarled, dark gray trunks and camel-brown, sage, and pine-green leaves. The trees to our left are closer and taller, while those to our right are a little farther away. The sun pours from the upper left into the field beyond. The farm buildings there have tan walls and sloping, peach-colored roofs. A few animals and people, smaller than the group in front, stand among the buildings, and more cottages can be glimpsed through a stand of trees on our right. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and a church and steeple are silhouetted against the sky in the deep distance. A few birds fly in front of gray and white clouds that rise from the right side and spread across the top of the canvas.
Meindert Hobbema, A Farm in the Sunlight, 1668, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.60

A Farm in the Sunlight

Meindert Hobbema · 1668 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.60

A woman and child sit on a throne against a shiny gold background in this vertical panel painting. Two winged angels in the upper corners and two men in the lower corners are about half the size of the woman and child. They all have pale skin with pink cheeks and gold halos. The woman’s head tilts to our right, and she looks off over our right shoulder with hazel eyes. She has a narrow nose, and her lips are set in a line. Her brows angle downward and her chin pulls back, creating a slightly distorted triangular face. A marine-blue mantle covers her head and wraps around a blush-pink robe. The child sits upright with his body facing us and his head turned to look to our left. He has short, light brown hair with light brown eyes, and he wears a scarlet-red robe with a dusty rose-pink mantle draped over one shoulder and across his lap. He points to our left with one hand and holds a white scroll lined with black in the other. They sit on a wide, rust-red seat with a tomato-red cushion. The angels in the upper corners hold up a cloth patterned with garnet-red flowers and black and gold pinwheels behind the pair. The angel on the left wears a muted pink cloak over a sage-green robe, and the other angel wears a bone-white cloak over pink. The two men standing in the lower corners look up at the woman and child. The man on the left has long brown hair and beard and wears a muted pink robe over a long, furry garment. He holds a long scroll in his right hand, on our left. The abbreviated writing on the scroll reads, “ECE AGNU DEI: UI.” The man in the lower right is balding and has a gray beard. He wears an orange cloak wrapped around a dark blue robe. Two gold keys hang on red thread in his left hand, on our right. The panel has a wide, cranberry-red border decorated with black and gold stylized flowers and vines.
Tuscan 13th Century, Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and Two Angels, c. 1290, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.60

Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and Two Angels

Tuscan 13th Century · c. 1290 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.60

Shown from the knees up, a seated woman and two winged, nude children gather at the center of this vertical painting. They all have pale, peachy skin. At the center of the composition, the woman, Venus, sits with her body angled slightly to our right as she turns her head back to our left, gazing into the distance with brown eyes under thick brows. She wears a jeweled headpiece over her upswept, honey-blond hair, and delicate ringlets frame her brow. Her cheeks are tinged with dusty rose-pink, and she has a long nose and a ruby-red, bow mouth. She wears an amber-yellow gown trimmed with white lace at the neckline. The short sleeve we can see is slashed to reveal cream-white fabric puffing out of the openings. A wide, gold chain inset with gleaming pale aquamarine-blue jewels the size of thumbprints drapes over her far shoulder and across her chest like a sash. She wears a pearl necklace and teardrop-shaped earrings, and more pearls and gems adorn the gold bracelets on her wrists. One child, in the lower right corner of the painting, stands in front of her with his back to us. He holds an arrow in his left hand, which he rests on the chocolate-brown cloth draped across Venus’s lap. He turns head to the right, and his face is partially obscured by one of his small, charcoal-gray and cream-white wings. Venus holds two ends of an off-white cloth tied around his head as a blindfold. Just beyond him is another person, visible from the hip up, who fills the height of the composition but is mostly cropped by the right edge. We see the left arm, shoulder, and edge of the hip as they stand with their back to us. The arm we can see is raised to hold what appears to be a metal bowl. On Venus’s opposite side, to our left, the second winged child stands on the ledge on which Venus sits. He leans one hand and his chin on Venus’s shoulder and gazes off to our right. He has chestnut-brown hair and eyes, and a round nose in a pudgy face. Loosely painted cranberry-red drapery hangs from the upper left corner and falls in cascading folds behind him. An azure-blue sky with tan clouds is visible beyond the drapes.
Italian 16th Century, Anonymous Artist, Venus Blindfolding Cupid, c. 1566/1570 or c. 1576/1580, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.12

Venus Blindfolding Cupid

Italian 16th Century, Anonymous Artist · c. 1566/1570 or c. 1576/1580 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.2.12