Baroness Gabrielle Bentinck-Thyssen

1915 or 1917 - 1999

Explore Selected Works

In almost complete darkness, we look across reeds and grasses lining a river spanned by narrow, arched, stone bridge ahead of us in this moonlit, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the painting, just over the footbridge, and the sky is filled with clouds that glow blush pink, flint gray, and lavender purple. The small, porcelain-white moon casts an opalescent gleam on the water under the arch of the bridge. Barely visible in the gloom, a walking path lined by a fence in the lower right corner leads to a copse of tall trees to our right. Closer inspection reveals a man wearing crimson red and a woman wearing pine green standing together near the gate of a walled enclosure beyond the trees. Moonlight glints on their white collars and cuffs, and on the gold buttons and embroidery on their clothing. Spires and buildings with stepped rooflines along the riverbank are outlined against the illuminated sky, though most of the details of the structures are swallowed in shadow.
Aert van der Neer, Moonlit Landscape with Bridge, probably 1648/1650, oil on panel, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1990.6.1

Moonlit Landscape with Bridge

Aert van der Neer · probably 1648/1650 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1990.6.1

Shown from the thighs up, a man with pale, peachy skin looks at us in front of a dark gray background in this vertical portrait painting. His body and head angle to our right so he looks out of the corners of his brown eyes under dark, cocked brows. He has a rounded nose, flushed cheeks, the suggestion of a goatee, and his full, pale pink lips are closed. His face is nestled in a narrow froth of lace that lines the top of the high collar of his pale yellow jerkin. Eight iron-gray buttons line the front of the collar and continue down onto the chest. The jerkin is slashed vertically down the front and both short, cap sleeves. A black belt fits tightly around his narrow waist and a sword hangs from the far hip. The long sleeves under the jerkin are charcoal gray, as are the puffy tops of his pants, His right elbow, to our left, is slightly bent as his arm rests by his side. The backs of his other fingers rest in a loose fist against his far hip. A dark triangular form in the lower left corner of the painting could be the corner of a dark table. An inscription to the left of the man’s head reads “AE.S.20 Ao. 1558.”
Anonymous Artist, Portrait of a Young Man, 1558, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.79

Portrait of a Young Man

Anonymous Artist · 1558 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.79