Messrs. Foster

active 1911

Explore Selected Works

A man stands with one arm resting over the back of a chestnut-brown horse as two women approach the animal in this horizontal portrait painting set in a landscape. The people have pale skin, dark eyes, and ash-brown or gray hair. At the center of the composition, the cleanshaven man stands with his body angled to our left as he looks off in that direction. He has a rounded nose, a dimple in his slight double chin, and he smiles faintly. A black tricorn hat sits on his gray hair, which curls up over his ears. His uniform has a long, pearl-white vest over a high, bright-white collar. His knee-length red coat is open, and the side closer to us is tucked back behind a sword hanging on that hip. The coat is lined with navy blue and gold down the front and around the cuff we see. The vest and coat have gold-colored buttons, and a gloved hand rests on the scabbard by his side. He wears white britches and knee-high, black boots with spurs. One ankle crosses in front of the other as he leans gently against the horse. The animal bends one back leg to rest along the front edge of its hoof as it reaches its muzzle forward, toward the women to our left. One woman sits in a wood armchair in front of the horse as she holds some pink flowers to the animal’s nose. She has a bumped nose, dark brows, and her delicate, pale pink lips are parted. Her hair is teased high and covered at the back with a white cloth. A voluminous, pearl-white, hooded shawl covers all of her upper body except the proffered hand. The lace edge of the white skirt puddles on the dirt ground. Behind her, the second woman leans over her crossed forearms, which rest on the back of the chair. This second woman has large eyes and delicate features. The top of her hair is also covered with a cloth, and she wears a black choker and a black apron over a sapphire-blue and white dress. A thick-trunked tree behind the women fills the left half of the composition, and its dark canopy reaches almost across the top half of the painting. A few plants line the far side of the dirt ground to our right. An expanse of silvery water curves like a C around a rocky promontory in the distance, also to our right. Smoke-gray mountains, hazy in the distance, stretch across the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. Some steel-gray and pale peach clouds cover much of the ice-blue sky.
George Stubbs, Captain Samuel Sharpe Pocklington with His Wife, Pleasance, and possibly His Sister, Frances, 1769, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. Charles S. Carstairs in memory of her husband, Charles Stewart Carstairs, 1952.9.4

Captain Samuel Sharpe Pocklington with His Wife, Pleasance, and possibly His Sister, Frances

George Stubbs · 1769 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.9.4

A long, rectangular dining table is surrounded by thirteen people in this horizontal painting. The skin of all the people, some of their clothing, and the tabletop are painted golden yellow. Touches of aquamarine blue, salmon pink, and rust red appear in some clothing, and the scene is set against a nearly black background. Across from us at the center of the table, a radiating, gold starburst surrounds the head and shoulders of a man, Jesus, with shoulder-length blond hair and beard. He looks at or toward us with dark eyes as he holds his hands up, palms facing out, at his chest. He wears a champagne-white robe and reclines with his legs extended to our left as he rests his opposite elbow on what could be a cushion or rolled-up blanket. To our right, a second person mirrors Jesus’s reclining position but with wrists crossed over the chest and turning to look toward Jesus. That person wears a long teal-blue garment and has smooth cheeks and long blond hair. Another bearded man to our left, near the back corner of the table, leans away from Jesus with hands held up as if in prayer. Three people lounge or sit on each of the short sides of the table to our left and right, and four recline on the side closest to us. Some have beards and others are cleanshaven, and some have short hair while others have long locks. Most of them look toward Jesus while two bend low to the table in prayer. One man, in the lower right, wears brick red and turns his back on the table as he counts or touches coins in a sack. The long table is set with goblets and plates of food. The artist signed the work with his initials in the lower left corner: “WB inv.”
William Blake, The Last Supper, 1799, tempera on canvas, Rosenwald Collection, 1954.13.1

The Last Supper

William Blake · 1799 · tempera on canvas ·  Accession ID  1954.13.1

An old man with a long, white beard and flowing, white hair sits surrounded by three young women in a gold-toned room in this horizontal painting. The people all have dark dots for eyes and touches of pink on the cheeks of their otherwise parchment-white skin. At the center of the composition, the man holds his arms out straight to his sides, lifted slightly above shoulder level, with his index fingers pointing and his middle fingers touching his thumbs to make a ring with each hand. He looks down to our right under bushy, furrowed brows, and his beard falls to his lap. His cream-white robe falls to the floor over his legs, but the toes of one foot peek out from under the hem. Two young women with blond hair sit to either side of him, leaning against his legs and sides. The woman to our left wears a harvest-yellow, long-sleeved gown, and she holds her hands pressed to her upper chest. The woman to our right wears a muted, rose-pink gown. The third woman, in front of the man, sits with her back to us, hands palm-down on the floor to either side of her, and her face resting on the man’s knees. Her blond hair is partially held in a net at the base of her skull, and her slate-blue gown pools around her. The edges of a ruby-red seat curl to either side of the women flanking the man. On the upper half of the wall opposite us, a roundel is flanked by a square panel to each side. We can barely make out the forms of some people in the monochromatic, caramel-brown sections. The floor is loosely patterned with muted red, black, royal blue, and butter yellow. Upon closer inspection, we find that the surface of the painting is cracked throughout.
William Blake, Job and His Daughters, 1799/1800, pen and tempera on canvas, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.11.11

Job and His Daughters

William Blake · 1799/1800 · pen and tempera on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.11.11

We look across an expanse of a flat, grassy lawn at the towering spire of a stone church outlined against billowing clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The lawn is dappled with light filtering through a line of trees with thick, green canopies to our left. The trees take up almost the left half of the composition, and they line a dirt path where three people walk. Tiny in scale, the people are painted with strokes of slate blue, red, white, and black. A few animals, perhaps cows, graze on the lawn near more trees on the far side of the green. Beyond the trees, the church sits on the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up the composition. Minuscule touches of yellow, black, and red may suggest more people in the deep distance. The pale blue sky is nearly filled with puffy parchment-white and mauve-tinged clouds.
John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from Lower Marsh Close, 1820, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.108

Salisbury Cathedral from Lower Marsh Close

John Constable · 1820 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.108