Allegory of Painting (Primary Title)
Pittura (Painting) (Former Title)
Pompeo Battoni, Italian, 1708 - 1787 (Artist)
1772
Italian
Oil on canvas
L2020.6.1
In this allegory of painting, Batoni simultaneously emphasized the medium’s capacity to imitate life and the artist’s tendency to create idealized forms of beauty. The small theatrical mask that hangs from the gold chain around Pittura’s bust alludes to the comparable intentions of actors and painters to mimic nature, while her gold tiara, pearls, and jewels equate material riches with the popular notion of painting’s superiority to all other artistic mediums. Many of her features embody the culturally determined standards of beauty that Batoni inherited from the Roman art of the High Renaissance period.
The half-length format of the composition was typical of his portraiture, and it is possible this painting is a portrait historié (an actual person portrayed as a mythological or historical figure) of a sitter whose identity is unknown today. Yet, considering that Batoni painted other allegories of the various arts, it is perhaps more likely that these works mark his return to history painting in the final part of his life, after a long and successful career as one of the most sought-after portraitists in 18th-century Europe.
A Serenade Near a Fountain (Primary Title)
Jacques de Lajoüe, French, 1687 - 1761 (Artist)
ca. 1725
French
Oil on canvas
L2020.6.68
Colorful, lush, and bursting with fantasy and wit, the art of Jacques de Lajoüe perfectly embodies what came to be known as the Rococo picturesque genre in early 18th-century France. The artist was a decorator as well as a painter, and inventive depictions of dreamlike park and garden scenes like this one were immensely fashionable as decorative panels. Lajoüe’s paintings and decors were intended to surround his aristocratic patrons with the creations of his fantastic imagination.
He often incorporated surprising interactions between the painting’s human characters and the inanimate figures that decorated sculpture or architecture in the composition. This work features two actors of the commedia dell’arte (a popular form of improvised theater using stock characters and situations) serenading a lone woman, each man apparently hoping to seduce her with his talent. This trivial scene of everyday desires occupies only a small portion of the canvas.
Clearly, Lajoüe preferred to devote considerable space to the lavishly ornate and monumentally sized fountain. Although the woman’s reaction is not visible to the viewer, the sculpted nymphs that laze upon the fountain appear completely enamored with the performance.
Cleopatra (Primary Title)
William Wetmore Story, American, 1819 - 1895 (Artist)
modeled 1858; carved 1865
American
marble
2005.73
Cleopatra represents the high point of America’s taste for neo-classical sculpture in the mid-19th century. Leader of the second generation of expatriate sculptors residing in Italy, Story produced a monumental image of the brooding Egyptian queen. Seated on a throne, she leans back as if to contemplate past and future deeds.
After American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne saw the clay model for Cleopatra in Story’s Roman studio, he described it in his novel The Marble Faun (1860). Immortalizing the artwork before it was carved in stone, he declared it as “miraculous success” and continued:
Cleopatra – fierce, voluptuous, passionate, tender, wicked, terrible, and full of poisonous and rapturous enchantment…she would be one of the images that men keep forever, finding a heat in them which does not cool down, throughout the centuries.
Story went on to produce several full-scale idealized figures – many of them powerful women from history and mythology. His Cleopatra, however, remained one of the best-known American sculptures of the century.
Drop-Front Secretary (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
ca. 1780
Indian
sandalwood, veneered with incised ivory panels filled with black lac; silver and brass pulls, brass hinges
2001.231a-b
This drop-front secretary reflects the expanding boundaries of American commerce and taste. In March 1784, the frigate United States, owned by influential merchant Thomas Willing, departed Philadelphia for China. Along the way, it was rerouted to Pondicherry, India.
Among its returning cargo was this delicate secretary, subsequently given to Willing’s daughter, influential Philadelphia socialite Anne Willing Bingham. Made in Vizagapatam, the secretary belongs to a body of elaborately detailed work intended for the Western market. Clad in pale ivory inscribed with narrative imagery, it blends an English form with Indian materials and patterns derived from local textiles and Western prints. These works were associated with grand households in India and England.
They also suited the Binghams. Anne was the wife of William Bingham, a wealthy merchant, banker, and politician. Their home, Mansion House, was the grandest in Philadelphia and a favorite gathering place of the local elite. Guests considered the secretary a “curiosity,” but also evidence of the Binghams’ sophisticated taste. Halfway around the globe, the governor of Madras entertained guests amid an entire suite of Vizagapatam work – subsequently purchased by King George III of England.
Evening Shower, Paris (Primary Title)
Maurice Brazil Prendergast, American (born Canada), 1858 - 1924 (Artist)
1892–1894
American
Oil on panel
2021.510
Girl Seated in a Garden (Primary Title)
Winslow Homer, American, 1836 - 1910 (Artist)
ca. 1878
American
oil on canvas
77.23
During the 1870s, America’s leading genre painter, Winslow Homer, focused on pastoral images of youth. Many of the resulting oils and watercolors evoke the country’s postwar confidence, while others – such as this work – strike a more reflective, melancholy mood. Posed in an intimate outdoor setting, the contemplative young model seems to merge with the nearly abstract autumnal landscape. Homer likely painted this picture, which once belonged to his brother, while staying at his friends’ farm in upstate New York.
Grecian Couch (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
1815–25
American
Woodwork
maple, original blue-green paint, yellow paint, gilt decorations; reproduction rush seat, original English gilt brass mounts by Messenger and Sons, Birmingham, England;
2002.523
In the early 1800s, American furniture designers remained closely attuned to European fashions – including le gôut grec (the Greek taste). This particular wave of neoclassicism swept England and the Continent, celebrating ancient Greece for its “purity of design.”
Often produced in pairs, Grecian couches usually flanked a fireplace within the drawing room. This example’s scrolling arm, curved sides, and swept-back saber legs recall the simple, elegant lines appreciated in Greek forms – particularly the klismos chairs pictured on ancient vases. The couch’s painted and stenciled surface, however, is an American treatment favored in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The original blue-green pigment was uncovered during careful conservation treatment that involved removing an 1880s coating of black paint.
Lady Clara de Clare (Primary Title)
William D. Washington, American, 1834 - 1870 (Artist)
ca. 1869
American
oil on canvas
2007.69
William D. Washington’s Lady Clara de Clare is inspired by Marmion, an 1808 epic poem by Sir Walter Scott set in the Court of Henry VIII. The richly detailed scene comes from the second canto in which Lady Clara, “young and fair,” escapes the nefarious designs of Marmion by taking refuge in the convent of Saint Hilda on the Island of Lindisfarne.
While the Gothic Revival subject matter may seem arcane for a Richmond-based painter, Scott’s courtly idylls of sentimental feudalism resonated with the southern planter class in the antebellum period. During and after the Civil War, the tales’ “twilight-of-a-nobility” theme and chivalric emphasis on the chastity and honor of women helped redefine patrician southern identity and loss. Mark Twain notes Scott’s “large hand in making southern character,” arguing “that he is in great measure responsible for the war.”
Lotus and Laurel
HENRY PRELLWITZ
American, 1865-1940
1904
Oil on canvas
Gift of Joseph T. and Jane Joel Knox, 2008.42
With its layered allusions to ancient Greece and Rome,
as well as to Renaissance Italy, Prellwitz's Lotus and Laurel debuted at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the 1904 world's fair held in Saint Louis, Missouri. According to the painter, the scene represents a young man on the "road to Fortune" as he encounters "maidens of pleasure, whose symbol is the enticing lotus bloom. As he seems about to turn to the life of music, wine and love, Ambition, holding aloft the laurel wreath, recalls him."
Prellwitz came to artistic maturity during a resurgence of interest in ancient myth, literature, and history. As increasing numbers of American artists and architects studied abroad in European academies, they were encouraged to look to antiquity and the High Renaissance for examples of timeless beauty and unity. In the full flush of the so-called American Renaissance, classical figures became widely popular in painting, sculpture, illustration, architectural ornamentation, and decorative arts.
Madonna (Primary Title)
Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, Italian, 1609 - 1685 (Artist)
17th century
Italian
Oil on canvas
L2020.6.72
Unlike most Roman artists of the mid-17th century, Sassoferrato rejected the fashionable Baroque style that relied on unbridled compositional flourishes to convey religious fervor. While other artists rivaled one another in the exuberance of their paintings, he carried on with the understated compositional serenity and austere figuration favored by Italian Renaissance artists of the previous century.
His decision to frame the Virgin Mary in bust format allowed him to focus his composition on an intimate representation of the pivotal moment that transformed her life and made her an emblem of purity and religious devotion. According to the New Testament account, the angel Gabriel visited Mary to announce that she would conceive the son of God, Jesus Christ, through a virgin birth. This narrative, known as the Annunciation, was a frequent subject of the Roman Catholic Church’s art that focused on Mary and a favorite among artists since the Middle Ages. Her hands are crossed over her heart in a gesture conveying her acceptance of her imminent conception.
Moonlight, New England Coast
FREDERICK CHILDE HASSAM American, 1859-1935
1907
Oil on canvas
James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection, L.2015.13.28
Dark horizontal bands of irregular shape creep across this nocturnal image of the Isles of Shoals, bisecting the scene to articulate the region between water and sky. The simplicity of the composition is matched by a minimal palette; the only relief to the high-keyed blue color is the golden sphere that breaks through the night, casting its trailing image on the water below. The effect is one of serene isolation.
Moonlight, New England Coast illustrates the mature style developed by Hassam later in his career. Confronted with the harsh realities of urban life, Hassam turned his attention to landscape, adopting a brighter palette and more superficial forms. By that time, impressionism had become mainstream, a counter- point to cutting-edge trends toward cubism and surrealism.
Neptune Virginia Beach Maquette (Primary Title)
Paul DiPasquale, American, born 1951 (Artist)
2004
American
Bronze
2018.299
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tricorn Hat (Primary Title)
Peter Adolf Hall, Swedish, 1739 - 1793, active in France (Artist)
1782
Swedish
Oil on panel
L2020.6.66
Rinaldo and Armida (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
ca. 1715
French
Gouache on vellum
L2020.6.71
The Vélins du Roi was a workshop established in the service of the king of France in the 17th century. It brought together a team of talented artists who specialized in gouache (opaque watercolor) on vellum, and the extremely refined works they produced were usually presented as gifts to members of the court.
This gallant scene was inspired by one of the most beloved epic poems of the time, Jerusalem Delivered by 16th-century Italian poet Torquato Tasso. The tale recounts the seduction of Rinaldo, a brave knight, by the beautiful sorceress Armida, who bewitches him and holds him captive. The love between them embodied a chivalrous ideal epitomized by men with effeminate qualities, appealing to the period’s gallant culture of preciosité. In the scene’s background, Rinaldo’s companions have arrived to rescue him by breaking the spell, so he might return to war and a more masculine behavior.
Scotch Whaler Working Through Ice
WILLIAM BRADFORD American, 1823-1892
ca. 1878
Oil on canvas
James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection, L.2015.13.10
Born and raised near New Bedford, Massachusetts, the home port of the American whaling industry, William Bradford made his career depicting the massive ships that plied the Atlantic Ocean. Each spring, British and American whaling vessels set out for the Arctic, seeking the highly valuable products of their prey-oil and bone. In the summer of 1869, Bradford traveled with two photographers to the Arctic Circle to capture images of the icy North. These became source material for his impressive canvases. Here, men stand atop the frozen ocean, breaking a path through the glassy surface. The harsh environment and dangerous situation are amplified by the dramatic icebergs and ever-present summer sun.
The Eruption of Vesuvius (Primary Title)
Pierre-Jacques Volaire, French, 1729 - ca. 1790 (Artist)
ca. 1780
French
oil on canvas
60.39.11
The volcano Vesuvius, which destroyed the ancient cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 AD, was active again throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and excited intense interest. Artists throughout Europe travelled to southern Italy to observe and paint this marvel. Some recorded the eruptions to illustrate the principles of the new science of geology, while others simply painted picturesque scenes of this sublime natural event. The elegant onlookers in the foreground are mostly tourists rather than scientists.
The Isles of Shoals
FREDERICK CHILDE HASSAM American, 1859-1935
1912
Oil on canvas
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 70.17
Fluid and vibrant, Hassam's Isles of Shoals explores the elemental boundaries of water, air, and earth. Painted by one of America's foremost impressionists at the turn of the 20th century, it positions a seated nude at the ocean's edge. In this sharply tilted vista defined by azure, gray, and turquoise strokes, the woman is visually enveloped by the sea. The oil is among the over 150 views that Hassam completed during regular summer visits to the Isles of Shoals, a cluster of islands off the New Hampshire coast. There he found inspiration, rejuvenation, and the friendship of poet and island resident Celia Thaxter, whose lyrical gardening book he illustrated.
Vanitas Still Life with Skull, Candle, and Hourglass (Primary Title)
Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder, German, 1493 - 1555 (Artist)
ca. late 1520s
German
Oil on panel
L2020.6.6
The popularity of Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder’s portraits among Cologne’s patrician class made him the city’s preeminent painter in the first half of the 16th century. Vanitas motifs were intended to reinforce the viewer’s awareness of the vanity of human pursuits when confronted with the transience of youth and, ultimately, of corporeal life.
The decaying skull, the candle stub with its sputtering flame, the sand passing through the hourglass, and the Latin inscription meaning “Live mindful of death,” together effectively comprise a memento mori, a reminder of the ephemeral nature of material existence. This painting was the reverse side of a now-lost portrait roundel, which was very likely one half of a pendant pair depicting a married couple. The two portraits would have fit together in the manner of an oversized locket for ease of storage and transportation.
Venus and Cupid (Primary Title)
Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian, 1593 - 1652 (Artist)
ca. 1625–30
Italian
oil on canvas
2001.225
Artemisia Gentileschi, who trained in Rome with her father, Orazio, was the leading female artist of the 17th century. She worked mainly in Rome, Florence, and Naples. In 1616, she became the first female member of Florence’s noted Academy of Painting.
Gentileschi’s work, which is marked by the strong contrasts of light and dark as well as unusual, bold compositions, was influenced both by her father’s painting style and that of his famous associate, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Her subject matter often consists of powerfully rendered portrayals of women – Judith, Susanna, Cleopatra, and Danäe, for example – dramatically depicted either as heroines or victims.
In this work, however, Gentileschi has created a sumptuous image of Venus, the Goddess of Love, asleep under a velvet hanging. Her bedcover is painted with ultramarine, an expensive pigment made from powdered lapis lazuli. Behind her, Cupid wields a peacock-feather fan to keep pests from annoying or waking her. At the left is a view of a mountainous landscape with a small circular temple, reminiscent of the one dedicated to Venus near Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, just outside of Rome.
Winter Nightfall in the City
FREDERICK CHILDE HASSAM
1859-1935
American,
Oil on canvas
1889
James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection, L.2015.13.26
This painting records Hassam's fascination with atmospheric effects and human mobility. A coachman arches forward; a cloak, muffler, and hat are his only buffers against the icy chill. The well-worn snow bares the impact of turning wheels and roving pedestrians. As the rose-toned sky reaches twilight, a haze descends upon the city where only carriage lanterns and the glow from street windows guide the way. Winter has come.
The illusion of spontaneity and immediacy in the painting masks Hassam's careful cultivation; the artist prepared a series of sketches that were subsequently united on canvas in his studio. As he remarked: "all those people and horses and vehicles didn't arrange themselves for my especial benefit. I had to catch them, bit by bit, as they flitted past."
Frames and the McGlothlin Collection of American Art
The cartouche on the frame of this painting by Childe Hassam bears the name of the famed American artist Winslow Homer, suggesting it once housed a work by the American realist. Though that painting has since been displaced, James and Frances McGlothlin acquired this frame specifically for Hassam's Winter Nightfall in the City because its style of ornate carving is wholly appropriate to the painting. It is a superb example of 19th-century craftsmanship.
The McGlothlins' commitment to historically accurate frames has led them to retain originals when possible and to replace others with suitable antiques. In some cases, reproduction frames have been carefully handcrafted. Such foresight was rare at the time they began collecting; over the course of the 20th century, many historic paintings were reframed in a modern taste. The frames of the McGlothlin Collection today-original, antique, and reproduction-all serve to enhance the work of art and the viewer's experience.
Wounded Soldier
MOSELY GREENE American, 1829-1892
1868 Oil on canvas
Museum Purchase, 2018.171
Wounded Soldier is one of several paintings produced by an artist who witnessed firsthand the cataclysmic trauma, loss, and acts of heroism of the Civil War. Its sheer scale, unprecedented carnage, and widespread effect on daily life called into question previous styles of American art, particularly history painting that found redemptive value in the nation's conflicts.
In this brooding self-portrait, the artist and Union veteran Mosely Greene imagines a scene familiar to him from his service at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee (1864), and the siege of Spanish Fort near Mobile, Alabama (1865). While there is no record of Greene being wounded in either engagement, this painting is a timely meditation on ideas of loss and sacrifice. Indeed, the soldier's bloody left arm frames the articulated letters on his belt buckle, "U.S.," a potent reminder that the cost of an individual life was a sacrifice for the preservation of the Union.
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