Portrait Paintings

'La Napolitaine' by Jean Gagnaud, French mid 20th century signed oil on canvas, framed framed: 20 x 18.5 inches canvas: 15 x 13 inches provenance: private collection, France conditio...

Provenance: Torres Family Collection, Asunción, Paraguay, ca. 1967-2017 While the genre of portraiture flourished in the New World, very few examples of early Spanish colonial portraits have survived to the present day. This remarkable painting is a rare example of female portraiture, depicting a member of the highest echelons of society in Cuzco during the last quarter of the 17th century. Its most distinctive feature is the false beauty mark (called a chiqueador) that the sitter wears on her left temple. Chiqueadores served both a cosmetic and medicinal function. In addition to beautifying their wearers, these silk or velvet pouches often contained medicinal herbs thought to cure headaches. This painting depicts an unidentified lady from the Creole elite in Cuzco. Her formal posture and black costume are both typical of the established conventions of period portraiture and in line with the severe fashion of the Spanish court under the reign of Charles II, which remained current until the 18th century. She is shown in three-quarter profile, her long braids tied with soft pink bows and decorated with quatrefoil flowers, likely made of silver. Her facial features are idealized and rendered with great subtly, particularly in the rosy cheeks. While this portrait lacks the conventional coat of arms or cartouche that identifies the sitter, her high status is made clear by the wealth of jewels and luxury materials present in the painting. She is placed in an interior, set off against the red velvet curtain tied in the middle with a knot on her right, and the table covered with gold-trimmed red velvet cloth at the left. The sitter wears a four-tier pearl necklace with a knot in the center with matching three-tiered pearl bracelets and a cross-shaped earing with three increasingly large pearls. She also has several gold and silver rings on both hands—one holds a pair of silver gloves with red lining and the other is posed on a golden metal box, possibly a jewelry box. The materials of her costume are also of the highest quality, particularly the white lace trim of her wide neckline and circular cuffs. The historical moment in which this painting was produced was particularly rich in commissions of this kind. Following his arrival in Cuzco from Spain in the early 1670’s, bishop Manuel de Mollinedo y Angulo actively promoted the emergence of a distinctive regional school of painting in the city. Additionally, with the increase of wealth and economic prosperity in the New World, portraits quickly became a way for the growing elite class to celebrate their place in society and to preserve their memory. Portraits like this one would have been prominently displayed in a family’s home, perhaps in a dynastic portrait gallery. We are grateful to Professor Luis Eduardo Wuffarden for his assistance cataloguing this painting on the basis of high-resolution images. He has written that “the sober palette of the canvas, the quality of the pigments, the degree of aging, and the craquelure pattern on the painting layer confirm it to be an authentic and representative work of the Cuzco school of painting...

Provenance: Charles H. and Virginia Baldwin, Claremont, Colorado Springs, Colorado ca. 1907-1934; thence by descent until sold in 1949 to: Charles Blevins Davis, Claremont (renamed Trianon), Colorado Springs 1949 -until gifted in 1952 to: The Poor Sisters of Saint Francis, Trianon, Colorado Springs, 1952 until acquired, 1960, by: John W. Metzger, Trianon, renamed as the Trianon School of Fine Arts, Colorado Springs, 1960-1967; when transferred to: The Metzger Family Foundation, Trianon Art Museum, Denver, 1967 - 2004; thence by descent in the Metzger Family until 2015 Exhibited: Trianon Art Museum, Denver (until 2004) The present work is a spectacular jewel-like canvas by Amigoni, rich in delicate pastel colors, most likely a modello for an altarpiece either lost or never painted. In it the Madonna stands firmly upon a cloud in the heavens, her Child resting on a delicate veil further supported by a cloud, as he gently wraps his arm around his mother’s neck. From above angels prepare to lower flowers and a wreath, while other angels and seraphim surrounding the two joyfully cavort. Dr. Annalisa Scarpa, author of the forthcoming monograph on Jacopo Amigoni...

Léon François Comerre 1850-1916 French L'odalisque à l'éventail (The Odalisque with the Fan) Signed "Léon Comerre" (upper left) Oil on canvas Combinin...

Ralph Pallen Coleman (American 1892-1968) A Monumental Painting of "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ", circa 1940. Measuring 102" high x 77" wide (framed), this massive oil on canvas painting is truly one of a kind. The quality throughout the entire painting is masterful. The painting is very realistically painted with bright, vibrant, colors which shows the artists true passion and love for Jesus and Christianity. Ralph Pallen Coleman was an American painter and illustrator. His career spanned more than half a century during which he illustrated stories for many magazines, and later, religious illustrations and paintings which provided images of Christianity to millions of people during the 1950s-1960's. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he grew up and lived there throughout his 75 years. He received his formal art education at the Philadelphia School...

Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792 | British Sir Henry Bowles Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk and 5th Earl of Berkshire Oil on canvas Sir Joshua Reynolds is unequivocally considered the most important English portraitist of the 18th century who was instrumental in adapting the Grand Manner style in the portrait genre. In fact, when the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, Reynolds was elected its first President, setting the precedent of quality for which all other portraitists would strive. Reynolds's portrait of Henry Bowles Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk, showcases his genius in the genre and mastery over the medium. Reynolds’s portrait of the Earl expertly invokes classical values with strong lighting, rich colors and expert attention to detail to help underscore the prominence and revered echelon of the sitter. Howard was an esteemed British politician and Knight of the Garter. He served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1771 to 1779, and he played a key role in utilizing mercenaries during the American Revolution and safeguarding Sweden's independence. The portrait employs Reynolds's signature style to render Howard rightfully as a gentleman of distinction. Captured seated in a stately library, the Earl appears learned and austere as he places one hand upon a stack of important documents and looks wistfully into the distance. Reynolds makes these compositional choices decisively, as the seated position gives Howard a weighty appearance of importance and the semi-profile turn captures his countenance at an attractive angle that highlights his strong, masculine features. The work draws on the classical conventions of Greek and Roman art and the Italian Renaissance masters, anchoring the nobleman in a history of refinement. Everything from his strong yet welcoming expression to his pale face enlivened by a rush of blood to the cheeks presents the picture of a strong, vital and powerful leader. As the first president of the Royal Academy in London, Reynolds’s commissions raised the status of an artist in Britain during the Romantic period and also established the portrait as an esteemed high art genre that garnered equal import to the history paintings that reigned supreme in decades prior. Today, Reynolds’s works grace the walls of the most important museums in the world, including the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery in London, among others. Circa 1770 Canvas: 50 1/2" high x 40 1/4" wide Framed: 61" high x 52 1/2" wide x 3 1/2" deep Provenance: Sir Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk and 5th Earl of Berkshire, 1739-1779 His mother, Lady Mary Howard, née Finch, Lady Andover, d. 1803 Acquired by descent to her daughter, Frances, and her husband Richard Bagot (later Howard) Acquired by descent to their daughter, Mary (1784-1877), and her husband Col. Fulke Greville Upton (later Howard), d. 1846 Acquired by descent to Lieutenant Colonel H.R.G. Howard Sale, Christie's, London, March 24, 1961, no. 29 Julius Weitzner, London and New York Sale, Paris, Musée Galliéra, December 7, 1965, no. 165 Newhouse Galleries, New York, NY Mr. and Mrs. F. Howard Walsh, Fort Worth, Texas, 1966 Walsh Family Art Trust Private collection, Oregon M.S. Rau, New Orleans Exhibited: British Institution, London, 1844, no. 130, loaned by the Hon. Fulke Greville Howard. South Kensington, "Second special exhibition of National Portraits," 1867, no. 478, lent by the Hon. Mrs. Greville. Agnew's, London, 1903, no. 17. Literature: Algernon Graves and W. V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., vol. 3 (London, 1899), p. 945. David Mannings...

*PLEASE NOTE UK BUYERS WILL ONLY PAY 5% VAT ON THIS PURCHASE. Tête de Femme Blonde by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Oil on canvas 26.1 x 19 cm (10 ¹/₄ x 7 ¹/₂ inches) Signed upp...

Inscribed, upper left: “Miss Laura Keppel” Provenance: Commissioned from the artist and by descent in the Keppel family estate, Lexham Hall, Norfolk, to: Major Bertram William Arnol...

Julius EXNER (Copenhagen, 1825 - Copenhagen, 1910) Model stripping Oil on canvas H. 122 cm; L. 74 cm Signed and dated 1842 lower right Exhibition: most likely Charlottenborg Salon of 1845, under number 110, titled Modelfigur, awarded with a silver medal Provenance: Emilio Fernando Bolt (c.1860 - 1944), acquired from the artist around 1900, then by descent Our painting was produced as part of the summer sessions organized between 1839 and 1850 by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853), the master of Danish painting of the first half of the 19th century, in his private studio-apartment on the ground floor. floor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The master brought together a few students there between June and September, rented one or two models for the season, which were painted from different angles, the artists (including Eckersberg himself) sitting side by side. Eckersberg used to paint a fairly small version, the pupils of the larger formats. The work fits more generally into the legendary context of the research and reforms carried out by Eckersberg concerning the studies of nudes and in particular of female nudes, to make this exercise a genre of painting in its own right. Following his two-year stint in Jacques-Louis David's studio in Paris in 1811, Eckersberg had been made aware of work on the nude and in particular on live models, in natural light, while in Denmark the drawings were then only made from casts of antique models or other mannequins. In 1822, when he had been a professor there since 1818, it was he who had the Royal Academy of Copenhagen authorize the study of nudes, no longer in the evening by candlelight, but in natural light; from 1833, it was still he who allowed students to work on nude female models, even if the official authorization of the Academy did not take place until 1839. It was this same year that he instituted his summer sessions, on a private basis, to orient his painting and that of his students towards a new conception of the representation of models: even if the nude remains the real theme, it does not however, this is more than just an academic exercise. The subject is placed in a contemporary interior, with a rather sophisticated decor, and occupied with an intimate activity (it is this type of intimate vein that we will find later in Degas or Cassatt for example); thus in our painting, the young woman is supposed to take off her clothes to wash. The objective is that the viewer forgets that the master and his students are painting a model during a posing session, and that he instead has the impression of being alone with the model, but invisible, almost like a voyeur in spite of himself. Moreover, in these paintings, the model never looks towards the spectator, inducing a psychological distance with him, whereas model and artist are actually physically very close. On the other hand, it is not a question of idealized nudes either, even if Eckersberg, proof of his debt to the antique, chooses fairly classic models and poses. The sensuality is real and very present, with dreamy, even innocent, and timeless expressions (the models do not seem to have a defined age), suave and slow attitudes and movements, and especially with clothes that hide or reveal skillfully parts of the female body: upper buttocks, pronounced hips... Made by an artist under 20, our sensual painting is probably one of the most beautiful and spectacular produced by the students of Eckersberg during these summer sessions. With a perfect balance between the firmness of an ancient statue (it recalls the Venus de Milo) and the softness of the feminine forms, highlighted by a harmonious palette, it captures the attention with many details: the almost photographic folds white clothing...

The son of the legendary Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoléon François Charles Joseph, takes a spirited stance in this remarkable oil painting attributed to the Austrian portraitist Johann Peter Krafft. Believed to have been exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris, this work stands as a testament to both Austrian artistry and the legacy of one of the most powerful men in history. After Napoléon's exile to the island of Elba in 1814, his son was seen by many of his supporters as the last hope of France. The child was named the ruler of half of Europe, holding the titles of Napoléon II...

Artist Notes : I am enamoured with Superman and everything he stands for. He is the uber-immigrant, something people often forget. He is not human but merely looks human. Kal-El the ...

Sassoferrato (Giovanni Battista Salvi) 1609-1685 Italian Madonna Addolorata Oil on canvas Celebrated Italian artist Sassoferrato and his moving religious imagery are the epitome ...