Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton

Brandon, Alexander Hamilton, 7th Duke of
Douglas, Alexander Lord
Hamilton-Douglas, Alexander

British, 1767 - 1852

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James, 5th Duke of Hamilton

Jeremiah Davison · 1737/1740 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1947.17.29

A man with pale peach skin and dark hair wears a military uniform and stands in front of a desk in this vertical portrait painting. He nearly fills the composition so seems close to us, and he looks directly at us. His body is angled slightly to our left and he tucks his right hand, on our left, flat against his chest between the buttons of his jacket. His navy-blue waistcoat is white along the front where it is fastened with brass buttons along his chest. The jacket has red cuffs, gold epaulets on the shoulders, and three medals affixed to the chest. White britches end just below the knee, and white stockings covering his calves are wrinkled at the ankle above black shoes with brass buckles. A candle burns low in a lamp on an ornately carved and gilded desk behind the man. Books and papers are piled on the desk to our right. More papers and a thin sword rest on a chair in front of the desk to our right. The chair is also carved and gilded, and is upholstered with scarlet-red fabric decorated with gold bees. The legs of the chair push back the forest-green carpet underfoot. A tall clock stands on the wall opposite us and reads 4:13. A few capital letters are written on a scroll of paper on the chair, “COD.” The artist’s name is also written as if printed on a scroll of paper on the floor behind the desk to our left: “LVD.CI.DAVID OPVS 1812.”
Jacques-Louis David, The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, 1812, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.15

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries

Jacques-Louis David · 1812 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.15

Shown from the hips up, a pale-skinned woman with a long, narrow face wears a richly decorated crimson-red dress in this vertical portrait painting. Her body angles to our left, and she looks in that direction with hooded brown eyes. She has a long nose, a pointed chin, and her pink lips are closed. Deep indentations at her temples and the hollows of her cheeks are shadowed. Her brown hair is parted down the middle and held back in a gold net. Large pearls hang from her ears, and a long strand of pearls doubled around her neck look white at her collar and gray down by her waist. The bodice of her dress is patterned with marigold orange and wine red, and translucent white lace covers her chest and flares up the sides of her neck. A heavy outer garment has black stripes decorated with gold leafy designs alternating with ruby-red stripes. The seams are studded with pearls down the front and along the split sleeves. A gray cuff lines the wrist of a bare, long-fingered hand, which rests across the other forearm. She wears a leather-brown glove on the other hand and clutches a white cloth in that fist. She sits on a pine-green cushion, and an apple-red curtain falls in gentle folds across the background.
Agnolo Bronzino, Eleonora di Toledo, c. 1560, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.7

Eleonora di Toledo

Agnolo Bronzino · c. 1560 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.7

Shown from the thighs up, an older, balding man with a long white beard stands wearing a full suit of armor draped in a burgundy-red cloak in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our right, but he looks at us from the corners of his dark eyes. He has bushy gray brows, a bumped nose, high cheekbones, and his lips are closed. He has short white hair around a receding hairline, and his beard falls to his chest. His pewter-gray armor gleams darkly with cream-white accents. With one hand, he braces a baton against his right hip, to our left, and with the other gathers the folds of his cloak down by that side. The cloak is tied over one shoulder and falls heavily around his body. His helmet rests on a shoulder-high gray stone structure, perhaps a mantle or a ledge, behind the man to our right. The rest of the background is charcoal gray.
Titian, Italian 16th Century, Vincenzo Cappello, c. 1550/1560, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.3

Vincenzo Cappello

Titian, Italian 16th Century · c. 1550/1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1957.14.3

Bibliography

1852

  • Gentleman's Magazine. London, October 1852:424-425

1926

  • Marillier, H.C. [Henry Currie]. "Christie's" 1766 to 1925. London, Boston and New York, 1926: 55ff.

1991

  • Frew, John and John Lowrey. "Richard Payne Knight and Alexander..." Burlington Magazine 1061 (1991): 541-543