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Neoclassicism

Europe turns back to Greece and Rome: clear line, calm figures and civic virtue.

109 works · hang 2163 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. Shown from the waist up in front of a black background, a young woman with pale white skin and curly brown hair looks directly out at us over her shoulder with her body angled to our left in this vertical portrait. She has dark brown eyes, a straight nose, smooth skin, and her pink lips are closed. Curls fall across her forehead but the rest of her hair is pulled up under a white lace scarf, called a mantilla. The mantilla is tucked under the wide orange and black shawl wrapped around her shoulders. She clasps her hands at her waist, and her hands and forearms are covered with long white gloves that disappear under the shawl.
    Señora Sabasa GarciaFrancisco Goya, c. 1806/1811Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. A young woman draws on an oval surface with white chalk while three winged, baby-like putti gather nearby, all on a bank of pale pink clouds in this horizontal painting. The woman and putti have pale, rosy skin, flushed cheeks, and hazel-brown eyes. To our left, the woman reclines with her upper body propped up on her far elbow, which rests on a steel-blue cushion as her legs stretch out to our right. Her light brown hair is braided and wrapped across the top of her head. She wears a loose, seafoam-green robe over a billowing ivory-white garment that has slipped off the shoulder closer to us. A round paint palette with brushes sticking out of its thumb hole and a roll of blue and white paper sit in the lower left corner, behind the woman. The woman and the objects are on a red cloth. In front of the woman is a rounded surface, perhaps a canvas, on which she draws. She holds up a gold-colored stylus with her right hand, closer to us, with a pointed piece of white chalk in one end and black chalk in the other. The canvas is taller than her head, so the child-like putto she draws on it is life-sized. The three nude putti on the far side of the canvas have copper or golden-blond, curly hair, flushed, rounded cheeks, short wings in white or peacock blue, pudgy torsos, and dimpled limbs. One putto, presumably the one the woman draws, sits back on the bank of clouds with a carnation-pink sash across his chest. He pulls his chin back and looks at her from under his eyebrows. He holds a gold-colored torch with a pink flame in one hand, and the other hand rests near a cylindrical quiver of arrows. Another putto peeks around the side of the canvas, and the third stands and props the canvas up. That third putto holds up a wreath of laurel leaves up over the canvas, above the woman’s drawing hand. The bank of clouds is parchment-brown with muted pink and blue highlights against a vivid blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower right, “F Boucher – 1765.”
    Allegory of PaintingFrançois Boucher, 1765Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Overdoor Painting, by Pierre Rousseau, 1790s
    Overdoor PaintingPierre Rousseau, 1790sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

First room, south wall

  1. A Forest with Apollo and Daphne, by Jean-Victor Bertin, 1810
    A Forest with Apollo and DaphneJean-Victor Bertin, 1810Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. Study of a Seated Woman Seen from Behind (Marie-Gabrielle Capet), by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1789
    Study of a Seated Woman Seen from Behind (Marie-Gabrielle Capet)Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1789Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. A work made of oil on canvas.
    ShipwreckAfter Eugène Isabey, 19th centuryCourtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, south wall

  1. A woman with pale skin, wearing a silvery-gray dress adorned with white ribbons and light pink roses, stands looking out at us with a small, pug dog by her feet in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled slightly to our right but she looks at us with dark eyes under faint, arched brows. Her nose is rounded, her cheeks smooth and flushed, and her pale pink lips are closed. Her face is framed in a cloud of nickel-gray hair, and tendrils curl down over her shoulders. She wears a wide-brimmed straw hat with a white ribbon set on the back of her head and slightly off to one side. The bodice of her dress has a low, curving neck. This area is loosely painted to create the impression of layers of lace. A band of intertwined pale pink roses and delicate green leaves borders the outer edge of the lace. The dress has long, tight sleeves with lace at the cuffs and the notably narrow waist is tied with a blush-pink ribbon. The full, silver skirt is picked up to create a row of puffs, like the top of a muffin, around her knees. Bunches of pink roses and white ribbons are nestled into the puffs, and below, the skirt falls in long, vertical pleats to her ankles. She wears white stockings and pointed, petal-pink shoes. In her left arm, on our right, she holds a closed fan loosely at her side, almost lost behind the skirt. She holds a pink carnation with a full bloom and a bud on a long, curving stem in her other hand, by her hip. A caramel-brown pug with a black face, wearing a pink collar lined with three bells, stands facing us with one front paw lifted, to our right of the woman's feet. The landscape is painted in tones of mint and sage green for grass beneath trees enclosing the space the woman stands in, sand brown for the ground, and icy blue for the sky above.
    The Marquesa de PontejosFrancisco Goya, c. 1786Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. AN OLD WOMAN SPINNING
    An Old Woman SpinningClaude-Louis Desrais, 1810–30Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. Painting of bearded, ruddy-faced man in eighteenth century style clothing.
    Portrait of a Man in CostumeJean Honoré Fragonard, c. 1767–68Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. DESIGNS FOR ORNAMENTAL ARABESQUE MOTIFS
    Designs for Ornamental Arabesque MotifsEtienne de Lavallée-Poussin, 1770Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Second room, north wall

  1. The Billiard Room, by Nicolas Antoine Taunay, after 1810
    The Billiard RoomNicolas Antoine Taunay, after 1810Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A work made of soft ground etching from two plates, with roulette, on paper.
    Portrait of a Man in an Armchair, from Collection d'imitations de Dessins d'après les Principaux Maîtres Hollandais et FlamandsChristian Josi, 1826Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E), by Francisco Goya, ca. 1816–20
    God save us from such a bitter fate; a bandit threatening a woman and a child with a knife, page 41 from the "Black Border Album" (E)Francisco Goya, ca. 1816–20Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  4. Monks in the Cloister of the Church of Gesù e Maria, Rome, by François Marius Granet, 1808
    Monks in the Cloister of the Church of Gesù e Maria, RomeFrançois Marius Granet, 1808Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. Portrait of Don Juan Antonio Cuervo, by Francisco Goya, 1819
    Portrait of Don Juan Antonio CuervoFrancisco Goya, 1819Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. Still Life with Fish, Bread, and Kettle, by Luis Meléndez, c. 1772
    Still Life with Fish, Bread, and KettleLuis Meléndez, c. 1772Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art