Ochre Editions
SearchSign inCart (0)

Neoclassicism

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

109 works · hang 9759 ·

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

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. A work made of pen and brown ink and black ink wash, with brown ink wash, on blued-white laid paper.
    Odysseus, at the Doors of Hades, Meets the Shades of Tiresias and AnticleaJohann Heinrich Lips, 1785Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Portrait of Mademoiselle Marie-Anne Adelaide Le Normand, by François Dumont, c. 1793
    Portrait of Mademoiselle Marie-Anne Adelaide Le NormandFrançois Dumont, c. 1793Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1800
    Portrait of a BoyUnrecorded Italian maker, ca. 1800Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

First 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. THE VIRGIN WITH THE CHILD
    The Virgin with the ChildFortunato Duranti, 1820–1850Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  3. The engraving depicts a gathering around a woman holding a child in her arms in an indoor setting with stone columns and an arched background. Another woman is next to her, looking towards her while leaning over what appears to be a child or possibly a doll on a small donkey. Surrounding the central woman are several children, some seated and playing on the floor. A dog is resting at the central woman's feet. The image features lush drapery, creating a warm and intimate setting. The style suggests classical or historical fashion, and there is an ornate border with ivy leaves. The text and emblem below likely contain relevant inscriptions.
    L'heureuse féconditéNicolas Delaunay, 1777Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  4. TROPHY WITH ECCLESIASTICAL OBJECTS
    Trophy with Ecclesiastical ObjectsRomolo Achille Liverani, 1830–1850Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Second room, south wall

  1. A sliver of land across the bottom of this composition gives way to a procession of puffy gray and white clouds sweeping up across a vivid blue, panoramic sky in this horizontal landscape painting. An area of darker gray beyond the brown land could be a valley, mountain, or shadows from the billowing clouds. About one-fifth of the way up the composition, the horizon glows the faintest peach. The clouds trundle from our left up and to our right. The view is loosely painted, especially in the land.
    Study of Clouds over the Roman CampagnaPierre Henri de Valenciennes, c. 1782/1785Courtesy 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. AN OLD WOMAN SPINNING
    An Old Woman SpinningClaude-Louis Desrais, 1810–30Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
  4. A work made of oil on panel.
    Head of a Guillotined ManJean Louis André Théodore Géricault, 1818–19Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, north wall

  1. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénévent, by baron François Gérard, 1808
    Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénéventbaron François Gérard, 1808Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The Antechamber of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, by Francesco Guardi, ca. 1765–68
    The Antechamber of the Sala del Maggior ConsiglioFrancesco Guardi, ca. 1765–68Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. A work made of soft ground etching, hard ground etching, aquatint, and roulette, printed from two plates in red-brown and black, on ivory laid 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

Third room, north wall

  1. 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
  2. View of Rome, by Pierre Henri de Valenciennes, c. 1782–84
    View of RomePierre Henri de Valenciennes, c. 1782–84Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art