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Favorite decades: 1910's, 1800's, 1870's
Favorite artists: Anthony van Dyck, Giovanni Boldini, Henry Fuseli, Thomas Lawrence
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Portraits by Jacob Maentel and an unknown American artist, ca 1810-25, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
I’m actually kind of baffled by the rooster in the boy’s portrait.
Headwear and coiffures for women and young men since 1776, 1778 France, Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français
Row 1: Bonnet d'un gout nouveau et élégant avec des perles, Nouveau Bonnet a la Draperie avec deux rangs de grosses perles
Row 2: Petit Maître avec un Chapeau a la Suisse et un gillet à la Turque, Chignon à deux tresses accompagné de 4 boucles de côté à la Chanceliere
Girl’s dress by Jeanne Lanvin, ca 1916 France
Click to go to the absentee bidding page. This Kerry Taylor auction will end October 16th at 10:30 AM GMT (5:30 AM EST). You will need to register to bid ahead of time.
The Nathason Family by C W Eckersberg, 1818 Denmark, Statens Museum for Kunst
The merchant Mendel Levin Nathanson and his wife are greeted by their children after having had an audience with the Queen.
With this family portrait Nathanson marked how the simpler lifestyles and values of the middle classes now set the tone in Denmark.
The family parade themselves and their bourgeois
The children seem to have been interrupted mid-dance, but in truth this scene does not depict a random moment. The family parade themselves and their bourgeois ways almost as if on stage.
The intention
Nathanson had another, personal objective: He would have wished to show that he, being Jewish, was fully integrated in society. A leading figure within the integration of Jews in Denmark, he was also a great patron of Danish art and culture. During the years 1812-20 he was Eckersberg’s most important patron
All movement has been carefully positioned and captured in this painting. The figures have been arranged in a line like in the reliefs of Antiquity, even though there is ample space on the floor. Their gazes catch all diagonals in the space – and your eye, too. Father, mother, and children will all be together in a moment, either prior to or after having been apart. Here, a happy, well-integrated Jewish family – the Nathansons – present themselves as upright Danish citizens. They sponsored Eckersberg. To repay them he captured them in paint and held them up before our gaze. Their eyes scrutinise each other – and us, before we look at them. Who has power over what we see here? Eckersberg does; he who is known as the father of Danish painting. Father looks at us through all the gazes. Is the stove looking too? We bow to his gaze and authority with a smile. This is what the good family is like; this is what the good father is like until we disobey his demand for calm and order.
Henrik Holm, Research Curator
On the other hand:
The merchant Mendel Levin Nathanson commissioned this family portrait from Eckersberg, and he had a very definite concept in mind. Eckersberg really wanted to show the family engaged in a pleasant private moment, and in one drawing he depicted the children and adults performing a circle dance. But Nathanson wanted a painting with a rather more public quality to it. So here, only the children are occupied with music and dancing. They are interrupted by their parents entering through the door. The occasion is not randomly chosen. The couple have just been in audience with the Queen. The event marked the acme so far of Nathanson’s career. Having arrived in Copenhagen as a poor Jewish immigrant at the tender age of 13 he very quickly became a successful businessman and grew into a major patron of Danish culture. With this family picture he wished to demonstrate his new position.
Kasper Monrad, Senior Research Curator
Hélène Fourment in Her Bridal Gown by Peter Paul Rubens, ca 1630 (Belgium?), Alte Pinakothek
Rubens married Hélène Fourment in 1630, four years after the death of his first wife. Hélène was 16 and he was 53.
March fashions for women, girls and young teens or preteens, 1874 England, The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine
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