Henry Osborne Havemeyer

American, 1847 - 1907

Explore Selected Works

To our left, a young woman sits facing us on a low stone wall at the base of the vertical, black bars of an iron fence and a young girl stands facing away from us to our right in this horizontal painting. Both have pale skin. The woman looks directly at us with dark eyes as she holds an open book, a closed red fan, and a sleeping brown and white puppy in her lap. Her long auburn hair falls down over her shoulders. Her navy-blue dress is accented with white piping on the skirt, collar, and sleeves, and has three large, white buttons down the front and her black hat is adorned with two red poppies and a daisy. The girl wears a sleeveless white, knee-length dress belted with a marine-blue sash tied in a large bow at her back. The girl’s blond hair is pulled up and tied with a black ribbon. She raises her left hand to grasp the bar of the fence she faces. A bunch of green grapes lies on the low wall to our right. A plume of steam fills much of the space beyond the black fence, which spans the width of the painting and extends off the top edge. A few details can be made out beyond the fence, including a stone-gray building with two wooden doors to our left and a bridge along the right edge.
Edouard Manet, The Railway, 1873, oil on canvas, Gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother, Louisine W. Havemeyer, 1956.10.1

The Railway

Edouard Manet · 1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1956.10.1

German 16th Century, Portrait of a Lady, 1532, tempera on panel, Chester Dale Collection, 1942.16.3

Portrait of a Lady

German 16th Century · 1532 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1942.16.3

Shown from the knees up against a dark gray background, a young woman with peachy skin stands with her body angled to our left and she looks at us with brown eyes in this vertical portrait painting. She has dark, arched brows, a straight nose, and her full, coral-pink lips are closed. Her dark brown, curly hair is covered by a mantilla, an ivory-white, lacy scarf highlighted with pale gold and subtle, russet-red highlights. She holds the two long ends of the mantilla with her right hand, farther from us, below her bust. The ends of the scarf fall to mid-thigh over her long, ink-black dress. The bust of her dress is also white and shimmers, like the mantilla. Long, tight-fitting, off-white gloves nearly reach the short, puffed, cap sleeves of the dress. The back of the glove on her left arm, closer to her, is tied at the top with a bow, and she holds a silvery-white, closed fan in that hand. A brownish-coral colored necklace is painted as a squiggle of paint around her neck. Barely visible, the painter signed the painting in the lower left: “Goya.”
Francisco Goya, Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina, c. 1800/1805, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen, 1963.4.2

Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina

Francisco Goya · c. 1800/1805 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.4.2

Dense canopies enclose a forested interior along a stream in this horizontal landscape painting. Only a couple small patches of ultramarine-blue sky peek through the canopies, which are painted with dabs and strokes of pine, olive, and spring green. Dark trunks stand straight or curve up through the foliage. The stream begins in the lower right corner of the canvas and moves into the distance along the right half of the composition. Rippling water is painted with shades of muted green, ice blue, and very pale pink. Grassy patches line the dirt ground to the left. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “G. Courbet ’55.”
Gustave Courbet, The Stream (Le Ruisseau du Puits-Noir; vallée de la Loue), 1855, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1943.15.2

The Stream (Le Ruisseau du Puits-Noir; vallée de la Loue)

Gustave Courbet · 1855 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.15.2

Four people wearing earthy brown gather near a stream that runs through a lush forest carpeted and filled with moss, pine, and sage green trees and undergrowth, interlaced with thin, willowy tree trunks in this horizontal landscape painting. The forest fills the composition and the scene is dominated with tones of green, even in the reflections in the water. The stream runs from the lower right corner into the distance near the right side of the canvas. The trees and undergrowth are painted with blended brushstrokes, giving the scene a soft and hazy glow. Near the lower left corner, a woman kneels and helps a baby take a step toward a young girl, who approaches the pair with something gathered and held up in her apron. A boy climbs a tree nearby. A fifth person appears after close inspection, standing in and bending over the stream in the distance to our right. The scene is diffusely lit, with only a few bright spots in the canopy of the trees to suggest sunlight and sky beyond.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Eel Gatherers, 1860/1865, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1943.15.1

The Eel Gatherers

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot · 1860/1865 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.15.1

Shown from the knees up, a cleanshaven, young man with pale, peachy skin leans on his right elbow, to our left, against a ledge and holds a black top hat in that hand in this vertical portrait painting. His body faces us and he looks slightly off to our left, as if just over our left shoulder, with dark eyes. He has a wide nose, his pale pink lips are closed, and he has the hint of a five o’clock shadow on his square jaw and cleft chin. Sideburns come down past his ears, and straight brown hair falls in long bangs over his forehead and around his eyes and ears. White cloth wraps around his neck and is tied in a knot at the base of his throat. His white vest is striped faintly with light blue. Over that, his gray jacket has a black collar at the back and wide, gray lapels that reach his shoulders. The jacket is fitted to his waist, where it is buttoned, and then flares out into the shadows at his knees. Silver buttons gleam in the light from our left, down that side of the jacket. His left fist, on our right, rests against his hip as he leans on his other elbow, presumably on a ledge or high table. He holds the black top hat in that hand so we see the crimson-red lining within. The dark background behind him is subtly streaked with brick and coffee brown.
Francisco Goya, Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol, c. 1803/1804, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1941.10.1

Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol

Francisco Goya · c. 1803/1804 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1941.10.1

Edgar Degas, Three Dancers Resting, c. 1880, black chalk and pastel on tan wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.87

Three Dancers Resting

Edgar Degas · c. 1880 · black chalk and pastel on tan wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.87

A densely packed crowd of men and women, all of them with pale skin and most of them wearing black, stand in a theater lobby beneath a mezzanine level that runs close to the top edge of the composition in this horizontal painting. Because the crowd spans the width of the composition, the first impression is of a mass of deep black stretching across the canvas. Slowly, individual faces and poses become evident. Five of the women wear black, oval masks that cover their eyes and noses, and one more mask has fallen onto the rust-red floor below. Two women, wearing bright white and colorful clothing, engage some of the men in conversation. A man cropped by the left edge of the painting wears the green, red, and gold costume and pointed cap of a court jester. Two gold and glass wall sconces hang on the cream-colored wall behind the crowd, one near each top corner. The space within the mezzanine level above is painted loosely so details are difficult to make out, but a pair of legs clad in black britches and white stockings seems to stand with ankles crossed at the top center. A leg wearing a red, high-heeled ankle boot dangles outside of the railing to the right. The brushstrokes are loose throughout. The artist’s signature appears on a piece of discarded paper on the floor near the lower right corner: “Manet.”
Edouard Manet, Masked Ball at the Opera, 1873, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Horace Havemeyer in memory of her mother-in-law, Louisine W. Havemeyer, 1982.75.1

Masked Ball at the Opera

Edouard Manet · 1873 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1982.75.1

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a muted, sapphire-blue gown sits ramrod straight in a chair and looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. The chair and the woman’s body face our left in profile, but she turns her round face to look at us with large, light brown eyes. She has slightly flushed cheeks, a straight nose, a full lower lip, and her mouth is closed. Her left forearm, closer to us, rests on the front corner of the wooden arm of the chair. Her other hand lies across that forearm. Her blue dress has a high collar and wraps closed across her chest. The full skirt bunches around the back of the seat and around the arm of the chair. The corners of a white collar lie open at the woman’s throat, nestled into the dress's lapels. The dress is painted rather loosely with shades of slate and royal blue and shaded with mauve pink, giving it a hint of a sheen. The back and seat of the wood chair is upholstered in gold-colored fabric, which is also loosely painted with the suggestion of a brocade pattern. The background is dark brown, nearly black.
Francisco Goya, Thérèse Louise de Sureda, c. 1803/1804, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1942.3.1

Thérèse Louise de Sureda

Francisco Goya · c. 1803/1804 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.3.1

Spanish 18th/19th Century, The Duke of Wellington, c. 1812, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen, 1963.4.1

The Duke of Wellington

Spanish 18th/19th Century · c. 1812 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.4.1

Bibliography

1961

  • Havemeyer, Louisine W. Sixteen to Sixty: Memoirs of a Collector. New York, 1961.

1986

  • Weitzenhoffer, Frances. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986.

1989

  • Distel, Anne. Les collectionneurs des impressionists: Amateurs et marchands. Paris, 1989:237-242