The Le Nain Brothers, 'A Woman and Five Children', 1642
About the work
Overview
A woman and five children are crammed into a small space. It is hard to tell where they are, or what their relationships to one another are; their individual facial expressions, which all feel unconnected, seem to be the main focus.
The bright colours of the children’s clothes stand out against a dark background. The strange position of the woman suggests that the artist found it difficult to fit her into the scene: the perspective looks wrong and the tablecloth may have been added to hide this error. The terracotta jug, the bowl and delicate glass are painted with meticulous attention to detail. The white tablecloth emphasises dignity, but the empty vessels convey poverty.
The fact that the picture was painted on copper with bright, intense colours indicates that it was a luxury object. Perhaps it was owned by somebody who gave charity to the poor, and these are portraits of abandoned children cared for by wealthier benefactors.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Woman and Five Children
- Artist
- The Le Nain Brothers
- Artist dates
- Antoine (about 1600 - 48), Louis (about 1603 - 48), Mathieu (about 1607 - 77)
- Date made
- 1642
- Medium and support
- oil on copper
- Dimensions
- 21.8 × 29.2 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Lesser Lesser, 1894
- Inventory number
- NG1425
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Humphrey Wine, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings’, London 2001; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2016The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of 17th-Century FranceKimbell Art Museum22 May 2016 - 11 September 2016Legion of Honor (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)8 October 2016 - 29 January 2017Musée du Louvre-Lens22 March 2017 - 26 June 2017
Bibliography
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1904A. Valabrègue, Les frères Le Nain, Paris 1904
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1907U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols, Leipzig 1907
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1910R.C. Witt, 'Preface', in Illustrated Catalogue of Pictures by the Brothers Le Nain, London 1910
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1922P. Jamot, 'Sur les frères Le Nain II: Essai de classement de l'oeuvre des Le Nain', Gazette des beaux-arts, 1922, pp. 219-33
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1924J. Thiis, 'De tre brødre Le Nain. Notater og iagttagelser om deres Billeder', Kunstmuseets Aarskrift, VIII-X, 1924, pp. 273-304
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1928C.H.C. Baker, 'The Le Nain Brothers', Apollo, VIII, 1928, pp. 66-71
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1929P. Jamot, Les Le Nain, Paris 1929
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1932W. Weisbach, Franzosische Malerie des XVII Jahrhunderts im Rahmen von Kultur und Gesellschaft, Berlin 1932
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1932H.I. Kay, 'Another Dated Le Nain', The Connoisseur, 1932
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1933P. Fierens, Les Le Nain, Paris 1933
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1935M. Davies, 'Signed Lenains', The Burlington Magazine, LXVI, 1935, pp. 293-4
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1936V. Lazarev, Les frères Le Nain, Leningrad 1936
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1936A. Sambon, 'Les Le Nain', Bulletin trimestriel de la Chambre Internationale des Experts d'Art, 1936
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1938G. Isarlo, 'Les trois Le Nain et leur suite', La Renaissance, XXI/1, 1938, pp. 1-58
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1939V. Bloch, 'Louis Le Nain and His Brothers', The Burlington Magazine, LXXV/437, 1939, pp. 50-9
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1946Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
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1953A. Blunt, Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700, London 1953
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1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
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1975Heim Gallery, Le choix de l'amateur. Sélection de peintures et sculptures du XVe au XIXe siècle (exh. cat. Galerie Heim, 6 June - 31 July 1975), Paris 1975
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1978J. Thuillier and M. Laclotte, Les frères Le Nain, (exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 3 October 1978 - 8 January 1979), Paris 1978
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1979H. Adhémar, 'Les frères Le Nain et les personnes charitables à Paris sous Louis XIII', Gazette des beaux-arts, XCIII, 1979, pp. 69-74
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1979J.P. Cuzin, 'Les frères Le Nain: La part de Mathieu', Paragone, CCCXLIX, 1979, pp. 58-70
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1979P. Rosenberg, 'L'exposition Le Nain: Une proposition', Revue de l'art, 43, 1979, pp. 91-100
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1985M. Wilson, French Paintings before 1800, London 1985
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1986National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1985 - December 1985', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, X, 1986
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1993P. Rosenberg, Tout l'oeuvre peint des Le Nain, Paris 1993
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1994A. Mérot, La peinture française au XVIIe siècle, Paris 1994
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1994J.-P. Cuzin, 'Les frères Le Nain: Le mystere des portraits', in P. Rosenberg et al., Hommage à Michel Laclotte: Etudes sur la peinture du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, Milan 1994, pp. 480-493
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2001Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings, London 2001
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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