BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: John Singer Sargent: Charcoal Drawings

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: John Singer Sargent: Charcoal Drawings:

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Description of Pictures: John Singer Sargent: Charcoal Drawings
February 28, 2020 – May 31, 2020
At the height of his success as a portraitist, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) astonished the transatlantic art world by suddenly abandoning oil painting in 1907. For the rest of his life, he explored likeness and identity through the medium of charcoal, producing several hundred portraits of individuals recognized for their accomplishments in fields such as art, music, literature, and theater. John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal is the first exhibition of Sargent’s portrait drawings in over fifty years. This once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of master drawings—many of them from private collections and rarely exhibited—features compelling depictions of an international network of trailblazing men and women who helped define twentieth-century Anglo-American culture. This exhibition is organized by the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Richard Ormond is guest curator of the exhibition. The curator of the exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum is Laurel Peterson, Moore Curatorial Fellow, Department of Drawings and Prints.
The curator of the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is Robyn Asleson, Curator of Prints and Drawings.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. JSS_200227_009.JPG: John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was the leading portraitist of his day. Born in Italy to expatriate American parents, he established his career in London, where he catered to an elite clientele from the United States, Britain, and the rest of Europe. Over time, the insatiable demand for portraits frustrated Sargent and interfered with his work on other artistic endeavors. In 1907, at the height of his success, he astonished the transatlantic art world by abandoning portrait painting. For the rest of his life, when he explored likeness and identity, he did so on his own terms, through the medium of charcoal. Compared with oil paintings, charcoal drawings were quick and relatively inexpensive to produce. In a single sitting of less than three hours, Sargent could complete a drawing that conveyed a vivid sense of immediacy and psychology. Although many of the drawings were commissioned, others were made for the artist's own pleasure and given as gifts. The drawings in this exhibition reveal the extraordinary versatility of Sargent's work in charcoal, which proved to be the ideal medium for portraying the greatest luminaries of his time. As a critic predicted in 1916, "Future admirers will seek to distill from the charcoal the spirit of our age."
2. JSS_200227_013.JPG: John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal is organized by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. The presentation of the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is made possible with lead funding from Ann S. and Samuel M. Mencoff. Additional support is provided by Dr. and Mrs. Paul Carter, Andrew Oliver Jr. and the American Portrait Gala Endowment. Richard Ormond is guest curator of the exhibition. The curator of the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is Robyn Asleson, Curator of Prints and Drawings. The curator of the exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum is Laurel O. Peterson, Moore Curatorial Fellow, Department of Drawings and Prints.
3. JSS_200227_022.JPG: Sargent's Technique Sargent's method of drawing was direct and dynamic. Placing a sheet of paper beside his sitter on an upright support, he made a few charcoal marks to map out the proportions of the head and shoulders. After stepping away to compare the drawing and sitter from a distance, he darted back to his paper and added a few more strokes of charcoal. Repeating this back-and forth movement, he gradually built up the drawing. Sargent used a blending stump or his thumb to merge tones into one another. He removed excess charcoal with pellets of bread and created dramatic highlights by scraping through to the paper beneath. Wielding his charcoal stick swiftly and with bold self-confidence, he imbued his drawings with vitality. The artist often enhanced the lively impression by placing his subjects at an angle to the picture plane and turning or cocking their heads to one side. Before setting to work, Sargent had a clear image in mind. He decided in advance, for example, whether to use a firm or feathery touch, and whether to darken the background with vigorous charcoal strokes or leave the paper relatively untouched. In this manner, he communicated his conception of each sitter's appearance and character.
4. JSS_200227_026.JPG: Sargent at work on the charcoal portrait of the actress Ethel Barrymore by Sarah Sears, photograph, 1903. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
5. JSS_200227_030.JPG: John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal
6. JSS_200227_034.JPG: Musicians and Actors Sargent's passionate interest in music had a profound impact on his portrait practice. Many sitters recalled that he hummed while working and would sometimes dash to his piano to play a few bars of music. He avidly attended concerts and hosted private performances in his studio. Not surprisingly, the leading composers, singers, and musicians of Sargent's day inspired some of his most intriguing drawings. He offered many of these as gifts in grateful exchange for the pleasure he had received from his subject's music. Theatrical performers also fascinated and inspired Sargent, and he eagerly sought opportunities to represent actors whose work he admired. In 1903, Ethel Barrymore, known as the "first lady" of American theater, received a letter from Sargent asking, "Would it be possible to give me an hour or maybe two? I would like to do a drawing of you and I would be so honoured to present you with the drawing afterward." Sitting for a portrait is a performance in itself, and Sargent clearly relished opportunities to portray men and women who were consummately skilled in the art of self-presentation.
7. JSS_200227_038.JPG: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 1875–1942 As a visionary art patron and the founder of New York City's Whitney Museum of American Art, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney is best known for her prescient endorsement of modernism in the visual arts. But she also championed modernism in music and was one of the earliest patrons of avant-garde music in New York City. In the 1910s, Whitney helped introduce European modernist music to American audiences through her support for French composer Edgard Varèse, the so-called "Father of Electronic Music." She was the primary financial backer of his New Symphony Orchestra as well as the International Composer's Guild, both of which promoted modern music. Whitney's musical inclinations are evident in this unusual drawing, in which she strikes a dancer's pose. Her flared tunic and harem trousers were a favorite outfit. Commissioned from Léon Bakst, they resemble his costume designs for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Charcoal and graphite on paper, c. 1913 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Flora Miller Biddle, Pamela T. LeBoutillier, Whitney Tower, and Leverett S. Miller This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
8. JSS_200227_050.JPG: Ethel Barrymore 1879–1959 The American actress Ethel Barrymore hailed from a long line of theatrical performers. Her greatgrandmother began the family tradition in the mid-nineteenth century, and her grandniece Drew Barrymore sustains it today. Barrymore made her stage debut at the age of fourteen. Over six decades, her career evolved with the times to encompass film, radio, and television appearances. When the Actors' Equity Association was founded in 1913, she became an ardent supporter. Fifteen years later, the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City was built and named in her honor. Barrymore's radiant stage presence captivated audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Winston Churchill proposed marriage; Sargent proposed a portrait. After seeing her perform in Boston in 1903, the artist wrote: "I would like to do a drawing of you, and I would be so honored to present you with the drawing afterward." Barrymore agreed, later describing this charcoal portrait as "quite my most treasured possession." Charcoal on paper, 1903 Museum of the City of New York; gift of Samuel Colt, 1984
9. JSS_200227_057.JPG: Ruth Draper as a Dalmatian Peasant The American actress Ruth Draper (1884–1956) is credited with originating the now-familiar onewoman show. She wrote her own monologues and impersonations, both dramatic and comic, and gained fame in the United States and Europe. With few props, she carried out amazing feats of selftransformation. One eyewitness was impressed by her "remarkable ability to reproduce each and every emotion a human being can experience." Sargent first drew a conventional portrait of Draper in 1913. However, after seeing her perform, he told her, "Destroy my portrait. I want to draw you as one of your characters." Here, Draper appears as a Dalmatian peasant in a New York hospital, one of her most famous monologue roles. The energetic lines convey the confidence that enabled Sargent to complete two drawings of the actress in just one-and-a-half hours. Refusing Draper's offer of payment, he gave her this portrait as a token of his admiration. Charcoal on paper, 1914 Museum of the City of New York; bequest of Ruth Draper, 1957
10. JSS_200227_065.JPG: Gabriel Fauré 1854–1924 Mrs. Patrick Campbell 1865–1940 One of the most advanced French composers of his generation, Gabriel Fauré anticipated the modernist trends of the twentieth century through radical experimentation with modality, harmonic relations, and dissonance. Sargent was a devoted friend of the composer and an active champion of his music. In this drawing, he portrays Fauré with a concentrated gaze that suggests he is playing the piano. Peering over his shoulder is Beatrice Stella Tanner. Better known as Mrs. Patrick Campbell, or "Mrs. Pat," she was a renowned English stage actor who excelled in the intelligent female roles created by playwrights sympathetic to the plight of modern women, such as Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. Sargent produced this striking double portrait after the London premiere of the Symbolist play Pelléas and Mélisande, written by Maurice Maeterlinck. Campbell played the title female role and commissioned the score, while Fauré composed music for the production. Charcoal with graphite on paper, 1898 Private collection, UK; care of Omnia Art Ltd.
11. JSS_200227_072.JPG: Harley Granville-Barker 1877–1946 Known as "the father of modern British theatre," Harley Granville-Barker adopted a revolutionary approach to dramatic production that remains influential today. Sargent made this drawing when Granville-Barker was in his early twenties, during which time he appeared in several plays by George Bernard Shaw. It wasn't long before the young Granville-Barker became a director himself. As such, he specialized in works by contemporary playwrights, notably Shaw and Henrik Ibsen, whose unsettling realism and social commentary stirred controversy. While developing his transformative productions of Shakespeare, Granville-Barker did away with elaborate stage settings and stilted, declamatory speech. Instead, he favored an open stage with symbolic scenery and encouraged actors to speak in a light, breezy manner. In addition to being one of the most important directors of Shakespeare's plays in British theatrical history, Granville-Barker devoted himself to establishing a national theater. This ambitious project was finally realized in 1976, thirty years after his death. Charcoal on paper, 1900 Lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London; given by wish of George Bernard Shaw, 1960
12. JSS_200227_079.JPG: Ethel Smyth 1858–1944 Ethel Smyth was a prominent and gifted British composer of opera, oratorios, and concertos. She was also a celebrated singer, noted for "the rare and exquisite quality and delicacy of her voice, the strange thrill and wail, . . . and the whirlwind of passion and feeling she evoked." To convey the effect of her music, Sargent made this drawing while she sat at the piano, singing "the most desperately exciting songs" in her repertoire. Smyth brought equal passion to the cause of women's rights. She worked with Emmeline Pankhurst and wrote "The March of the Women" (1911), the anthem of the suffragist movement. In a speech before the National Society for Women's Service, her close friend Virginia Woolf declared Smyth "of the race of pioneers, of pathmakers. She has gone before and felled trees and blasted rocks and built bridges and thus made a way for those who come after her." Charcoal on paper, 1901 Lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London; given by the sitter's nieces Mrs. Elwes, Mrs. Williamson, and Lady Grant Lawson, 1944 This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
13. JSS_200227_085.JPG: Charles Martin Loeffler 1861–1935 The German violinist and composer Charles Martin Loeffler studied music in Berlin and Paris. In 1882, he was recruited to join the new Boston Symphony Orchestra by its founder, Henry Lee Higginson, whose charcoal portrait by Sargent hangs nearby. Loeffler performed as a soloist with the orchestra for the first time in 1883. Just two years later, he became first violinist. He retired from the orchestra in 1903 but remained Boston's most progressive composer and an important figure in the musical life of the city. Loeffler met Sargent in 1887, when the artist came backstage to congratulate him after a performance. This unusual full-length portrait suggests their friendly rapport. It shows Loeffler standing nonchalantly, cigarette in hand, in Sargent's studio before a model of the rotunda at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which Sargent would soon embellish with a series of murals and reliefs. Charcoal and graphite on paper, 1917 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; bequest of Mrs. Elise Fay Loeffler This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
14. JSS_200227_091.JPG: Susan Strong 1870–1946 As a passionate admirer of the German composer Richard Wagner, Sargent must have relished the opportunity to portray Susan Strong, an opera singer renowned for her dazzling performances of Wagner's music. The New York City native had traveled to London in 1894 to study under the Hungarian-born pianist and composer Francis Korbay. A friend of Sargent, Korbay was then teaching at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1895, Strong made a sensational debut at London's Royal Opera House, singing the role of Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre (1870). She built on that success with performances in Bayreuth, Germany, and New York City the following year. The power of Strong's dramatic acting and dignified stage presence distinguished her from most contemporary singers, who appeared static and wooden in comparison. In this drawing, she adopts a confident pose suggestive of her commanding persona, while her flamboyantly arranged wrap lends a sense of drama. Charcoal on paper, c. 1905 Detroit Institute of Arts; gift of Mrs. Stevenson Scott This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
15. JSS_200227_100.JPG: Major Henry Lee Higginson 1834–1919 Inspired by orchestras in European cities, the banker Henry Lee Higginson founded the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1881. For many years, he was its only financial benefactor. Higginson's philanthropy was motivated by a generous democratic purpose: "to give orchestral concerts of the best attainable character and quality at a price which should admit anyone and everyone," particularly those with little access to education or the arts. Higginson was also a trustee of the New England Conservatory of Music and a benefactor of Harvard University. A shared love of music brought Sargent and Higginson together, and the artist relied on the banker for financial advice. Sargent made this charcoal portrait as a gift for his friend. The scar on Higginson's right cheek marks an injury he sustained in 1863 while fighting in the Civil War Battle of Aldie as a Union army officer. Charcoal on paper, 1911 Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; gift of Cecile Higginson Murphy This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
16. JSS_200227_109.JPG: Eva Gauthier 1885–1958 Known as the "High Priestess of Modern Song," Canadian-born Eva Gauthier began her career as an opera singer in Europe. A trip to Java, Indonesia, in 1910 led her to devote four years to studying local music in Japan, China, Singapore, Malaya (now part of Malaysia), Australia, and New Zealand. Following the outbreak of the First World War, Gauthier settled in New York City, where she was the first singer to perform Javanese music. Her ability to sing dissonant melodies was unusual among North Americans and Europeans and piqued the interest of contemporary composers, whose modernist compositions she also performed. This drawing is one of two charcoal portraits that Sargent gave to Gauthier, telling her that one of her Javanese songs reminded him of his youth. In 1889, Sargent had painted and sketched dancers featured in a re-creation of a Javanese village at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Charcoal on paper, c. 1920 The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection; gift of Claire Gauthier This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
17. JSS_200227_116.JPG: Ernest Schelling 1876–1939 Ernest Schelling made his musical debut at the Philadelphia Academy of Music when he was four years old. At seven, the child prodigy traveled to Europe to study with a succession of important music theorists, composers, and conductors. From 1896 to 1899, he was the only pupil of the great Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Schelling spent the next several years touring Europe and North and South America. In the midst of a taxing performance schedule in 1910, he sat for Sargent twice. During the sittings, the artist noted, Schelling was "in a condition of total collapse . . . [but] fortunately his looks held their own." Schelling was a distinguished composer and conductor as well as a virtuoso performer. In 1924, he established the Young People's Concerts at the New York Philharmonic and served as conductor until his death in 1939. He also conducted the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1935 to 1937. Charcoal on paper, 1910 The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; gift of Mrs. János Scholz This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
18. JSS_200227_125.JPG: Literary Figures Highly literate, fluent in four languages, and hailing from a cosmopolitan background, Sargent honed his powers of observation through wide-ranging experience of the world. Like his great friend, the novelist Henry James, Sargent may be seen as a transitional figure, bridging the cultural shift from Victorian materialism to twentieth-century modernity. On one hand, he was clearly fascinated by the physical characteristics of fabrics, jewelry, and hairstyles. On the other, he probed his sitters' personalities, mannerisms, and moods in ways that mirrored the more abstract, psychological concerns of modern literature. A sense of unease stirred by rapid changes in society, technology, and geopolitics also permeates the literature of Sargent's era. The popularity of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908) rested on its nostalgic evocation of a pre-industrial natural world, while Anna Bowman Dodd's dystopian novella The Republic of the Future (1887) gained a wide readership by warning of disasters to come. Burgeoning wealth in the United States brought further change, with prominent cultural figures traversing the Atlantic to create world-class libraries, museums, and private collections. Clients of Sargent, such as William Osler and John Cadwalader, were instrumental in these endeavors.
19. JSS_200227_129.JPG: Kenneth Grahame 1859–1932 Kenneth Grahame is best known as the author of the beloved children's classic The Wind in the Willows, which he published to immediate international acclaim in 1908. That was the same year that he took early retirement, at the age of forty-nine, from the Bank of England. He had worked there since he was twenty, quickly rising through the ranks to become secretary of the bank. During most of that time, Grahame wrote on the side, publishing his short stories in collections such as Dream Days (1898), which includes "The Reluctant Dragon." This portrait was commissioned as a gift for Grahame's wife by her sister, who was herself an artist. Sargent lamented, "I am sorry it looks older than he does, on account of the strong light and shade -- but something is gained by that in the way of modeling." Charcoal on paper, 1912 The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, UK; bequest of Elspeth Grahame, 1947 This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
20. JSS_200227_134.JPG: Anna Bowman Blake Dodd 1848–1929 An inveterate traveler who spent much of her life in France, the American writer Anna Bowman Dodd had a gift for lively descriptions of the people and places she encountered. She was a popular and prolific author, writing for periodicals such as the New York Evening Post and Harper's Magazine and publishing more than twenty-five books, including vivid travelogues. Reflecting her skepticism toward socialism and feminism, Dodd's dystopian novella The Republic of the Future (1887) takes place in New York Socialist City in 2050. It envisions the deadening effect of an egalitarian and conformist society in which citizens "have the look of people who have come to the end of things and who have failed to find it amusing." Sargent likely made this portrait while he and Dodd were both in Paris. She remained in France during World War I, carrying out relief work and raising funds for families in need. Charcoal on paper, c. 1900 American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; bequest of Anna Bowman Blake Dodd, 1928 This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
21. JSS_200227_139.JPG: Henry James 1843–1916 The American author Henry James is considered one of the greatest novelists in the English language. He spent most of his life abroad and frequently wrote about the culture clash between Americans and Europeans. After their first meeting in Paris in 1884, Sargent and James developed a close, lifelong friendship. Another American expatriate, their mutual friend Edith Wharton, commissioned this drawing in 1911. James praised it as "a regular first class living, resembling, enduring thing." Yet Sargent was dissatisfied, telling Wharton: "It has neither his grim expression, nor his amused one -- and I shall not be surprised if you pronounce it a failure." Rather than give the drawing to James, Sargent presented it to King George V for his portrait collection of recipients of the Order of Merit. A year later, in 1913, Sargent painted a portrait of James in oil to commemorate the author's seventieth birthday. Charcoal on paper, 1912 Lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
22. JSS_200227_144.JPG: William Butler Yeats 1865–1939 Arguably the greatest English-language poet of his generation, William Butler Yeats was deeply involved both in the Irish literary renaissance and the cause of Irish nationalism. This portrait was commissioned as the frontispiece to the first volume of Yeats's Collected Poems, published in 1908. Fifteen years later, in 1923, Yeats received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." Sargent's drawing greatly pleased the poet, who described it as "a charming aerial sort of thing, very flattering as I think." Yeats cultivated his appearance as a poet and an aesthete, confessing that he wore a velvet coat and bow tie "to remind himself of his own importance as an artist!" Sargent's moody characterization helped burnish the poet's image. Charcoal on paper, 1908 Collection of Anne Peretz This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
23. JSS_200227_151.JPG: John Lambert Cadwalader 1836–1914 Several of the most important cultural institutions in New York City flourish today because of John Cadwalader's efforts. The prominent lawyer devoted himself to enriching the city's resources. As a trustee and active supporter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cadwalader bequeathed his collection of porcelain and English furniture to the museum. In addition, he was one of the founders of the New York Zoological Society and served on its board for nearly twenty years. Cadwalader is best remembered as the principal organizer of the New York Public Library. He orchestrated the consolidation of the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundations to form one vast library system, and he played a leading role in designing the magnificent central library building. Through a bequest, he greatly enhanced the library's print collection. Cadwalader became president of the library in 1912, and this portrait may have been commissioned in honor of the occasion. Charcoal on paper, 1912 The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection; gift of John L. Cadwalader This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
24. JSS_200227_161.JPG: Sir William Osler 1849–1919 The Canadian physician William Osler transformed medical education on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1889, he was appointed physician-in-chief at the recently founded Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he helped create the university's school of medicine. Osler introduced the now-standard U.S. system of internships and residencies, which augments theoretical study with firsthand experience at the patient's bedside. He became a friend of Sargent's in 1905, after sitting for the artist's monumental group portrait of important physicians. Osler was also a prolific author, book collector, and supporter of libraries in North America and Great Britain. His most famous book, The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892) served as a standard reference work for many decades. Translated into six languages, it established Osler as the world's leading authority in the teaching of modern medicine. His personal library forms the nucleus of McGill University's Osler Library of the History of Medicine. Charcoal on paper, 1914 The College of Physicians of Philadelphia This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
25. JSS_200227_165.JPG: George Meredith 1828–1909 At the beginning of his career, the English poet and novelist George Meredith tailored his writing to fit the public taste. But after failing to receive the attention he sought, he began writing primarily to please himself. Ironically, it was then that he achieved his greatest success. Meredith's novels grapple with modern social problems as well as the psychological motivations of his characters and the contrast between the public and the private self. His experimental use of unreliable and shifting narration conveys a modernist sense of the subjectivity of perception. Meredith became a feminist hero for his insightful exploration of the social repression of women, most notably in his novel Diana of the Crossways (1885). At the age of sixty-eight, he reluctantly sat for Sargent for a charcoal portrait that would serve as the frontispiece for a collection of his work. This drawing was made at the same time. Charcoal on paper, 1896 The Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
26. JSS_200227_178.JPG: Tastemakers Around 1907, Sargent proclaimed that he "abhorred and abjured" portraits and hoped "never to do another especially of the Upper Classes." Yet he continued to earn his bread and butter through charcoal drawings of affluent subjects. Those who made productive use of their money and social position were most likely to pique his interest and yield compelling portraits. This gallery features men and women who were the "influencers" of Sargent's day, shaping contemporary taste in art, architecture, gardens, and fashion. Some were in the vanguard of avant-garde style, such as the fashion icon Daisy Fellowes and the art patron Eugenia Huici Errázuriz. Others, such as Sybil and Philip Sassoon, were equally influential in promoting a new appreciation of undervalued art from past eras and in carrying out sensitive restorations of historic properties. Sargent was a tastemaker himself. In fact, one rival artist, Walter Sickert, coined the term "Sargentolatry" in an article of 1910. Sickert bemoaned the "prostration before [Sargent] and all his works" by critics who considered the artist's paintings "as the standard of art, the ne plus ultra and high-water mark of modernity."
27. JSS_200227_179.JPG: William Adams Delano 1874–1960 In 1903, after studying architecture in Paris, William Delano returned to New York City, where he established an architectural practice that swiftly attracted an elite clientele. Together with his professional partner Chester Holmes Aldrich, Delano designed houses for prominent American families, including the Astors, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Whitneys. His major buildings include the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (1905–10), the Knickerbocker Club (1913–15) and the Colony Club (1916) in Manhattan, and the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport (1939). Delano also taught architecture at Columbia University from 1903 to 1910. In 1922, Delano designed the interior of the Grand Central Art Galleries, located on the sixth floor of the recently completed Beaux-Arts train station in New York City. The exhibition venue was intended to broaden public access to contemporary American art, and Sargent was instrumental in its founding. This drawing may have been made in connection with the project. Charcoal on paper, 1922 American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; gift of Mr. Delano, 1939 This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
28. JSS_200227_184.JPG: Sybil Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley 1894–1989 Sargent drew Sybil Sassoon when she was eighteen. That year, her father's death brought her a vast fortune, derived in large part from the nineteenth century Sino-Indian opium trade. Months after coming into her inheritance, she married into the aristocratic Cholmondeley family and found her life's purpose in restoring Houghton Hall. This masterpiece of Palladian architecture had descended through her husband's family for several generations. Built in 1722 for England's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, Houghton had fallen into disrepair. Lady Cholmondeley therefore undertook an ambitious historical renovation project to restore its rooms to their eighteenth-century state. During World War II, when the British Navy had a manpower shortage, Lady Cholmondeley advocated the recruitment of women to perform onshore work so men could go to sea. Following several years of service in the high command of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), she was appointed superintendent in 1945. Charcoal on paper, 1912 Private collection This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
29. JSS_200227_189.JPG: Daisy Fellowes 1890–1962 Daisy Fellowes took on the role of Paris editor for Harper's Bazaar in 1933. By that time, she had reportedly launched more fashions than any other woman in the world and was renowned as "the most elegant and most talked-about woman in Paris." Whatever she wore (or didn't wear) instantly established a new trend, and even haute couture designers followed her lead. Born Marguerite Séverine Philippine Decazes de Glücksberg -- but always known as Daisy -- the style icon was the daughter of a duke and an heir to the American Singer sewing machine fortune. Her fashion sense was daring and original, and she had a talent for making the most outrageous apparel appear effortlessly chic. She had a penchant for avant-garde design and frequently appeared in the surrealist fashions of Elsa Schiaparelli, who created the color "shocking pink" in her honor. Sargent's portrait conveys a sense of the subject's elegant allure. Charcoal on paper, c. 1920 Private collection, Columbus, Georgia This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
30. JSS_200227_198.JPG: Sir Philip Sassoon 1888–1939 As a connoisseur and collector, Philip Sassoon helped to foster the modern appreciation of eighteenth-century French and English art. Along with his sister Sybil (whose portrait hangs nearby), Philip inherited an enormous banking fortune in 1912. This enabled him to undertake innovative building and renovation schemes at two palatial country houses, where he hosted international political gatherings. Sassoon's London mansion housed his collection of contemporary art (including several works by his friend, Sargent) and was the venue for ten influential exhibitions that he organized. Sassoon was deeply involved in politics as well as art. At the age of twenty-four, he became the youngest member of Parliament, remaining in office until his death. During the First World War, he served as private secretary to Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief of the British armies. He became an early proponent of civilian air travel during several years of service as under secretary of the Air Ministry. Charcoal on paper, 1912 Houghton Hall Collection, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
31. JSS_200227_206.JPG: Eugenia Huici Errázuriz 1860–1952 The daughter of a Bolivian silver magnate, Eugenia Huici Errázuriz inherited a large fortune that helped fund her patronage of modern art. She bought and commissioned works by avant-garde artists, including Pablo Picasso, who painted murals at her villa in southern France. There, she developed a minimalist décor that was on the cutting-edge of twentieth-century style. Errázuriz became a close friend and important collector of Sargent's work in the 1880s while she was living in Paris with her husband, a Chilean artist and diplomat. Sargent adored her, telling the pianist Arthur Rubenstein, "I have never known anyone with the unfailing, uncanny taste of this woman. Whether in art, music, literature, or interior decoration, she sees, feels, smells, the real value, the real beauty." The elaborately ornamented dress and bouffant hairstyle he represents in this portrait are in marked contrast to his subject's later taste for radical simplicity. Charcoal on board, c. 1905 Private collection, Columbus, Georgia This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
32. JSS_200227_213.JPG: Ellen Peabody Endicott 1833–1927 This striking portrait represents the prominent political hostess Ellen Peabody Endicott, who held court for many years in diplomatic and government circles in Boston and Washington, D.C. She was a seventy-year-old widow when Sargent made this drawing in 1903, but her keen intelligence and shrewd judgment appear undimmed as she looks out appraisingly from hooded eyes, her head held interrogatively to one side. Endicott sat for Sargent while she was working on an ambitious project to embellish Glen Magna Farms in Massachusetts, a family property she inherited in 1892. In addition to renovating the original farmhouse in Colonial Revival style, she moved an eighteenth-century summer house to the property and restored the "Old Fashioned Garden." Working with landscape architects, she oversaw the development of new gardens and plantings. In recognition of her efforts, Endicott received the Hunnewell Gold Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Charcoal on paper, 1903 Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; gift of Mrs. William Hartley Carnegie This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
33. JSS_200227_219.JPG: Artists and Patrons Sargent developed close friendships within an international network of artists and patrons who frequently socialized and traveled together. The portraits in this gallery map the range of Sargent's art world connections. With remarkable facility, he altered his approach to suit each encounter. Some portraits are infused with intimate affection, while others convey an air of respectful admiration. Humor may underlie his drawing of the convalescing artist William Blake Richmond, who appears buried up to his chin in an enormous expanse of overcoat. By contrast, the smiling face of Sargent's vivacious patron Mary Smyth Hunter emerges from an ethereal cloud of fluttering charcoal strokes. During Sargent's lifetime, the transatlantic art world experienced cataclysmic changes. Impressionism had been the cutting-edge of modernism when he began training in Paris in the 1870s. By the time of his death in 1925, more radical art movements, such as Fauvism and Cubism, had made Impressionism (and Sargent himself) appear old-fashioned. While his circle of friends responded to these changes in a variety of ways, Sargent remained steadfast in charting his own independent course. His psychological insights and deep grounding in art historical tradition yielded portraits that we recognize today as timeless.
34. JSS_200227_222.JPG: Gertrude Kingston 1862–1937 A woman of extraordinary versatility, Gertrude Kingston followed in Sargent's footsteps by studying painting in Paris. In the early 1880s, she illustrated several children's books before embarking on an acting career to support herself and her husband. Kingston's success in both classic and contemporary dramas led George Bernard Shaw to write the title role of his play Great Catherine (1913) for her. In 1910, Kingston designed, built, and managed the Little Theatre in London, which used modern lighting technology. She displayed this striking portrait of herself in the lobby. Deeply interested in politics, Kingston published articles on current issues and campaigned for women's suffrage. During World War I, she co-founded the Women's Emergency Corps to provide humanitarian aid to continental Europe and spent several years lecturing in the United States on the British war effort. In 1924, she contemplated standing for Parliament but returned to art instead, developing a new lacquerware technique. Charcoal on paper, c. 1909 By permission of the Provost and Fellows of King's College, Cambridge, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
35. JSS_200227_227.JPG: Helen Dunham 1868–1937 Like her five remarkable sisters, Helen Dunham was noted for her cultural and intellectual sophistication. Although based in New York, her family spent considerable time in England, where Dunham formed a close connection with Sargent through their shared love of music and theater. The artist frequently mentioned "Miss Dunham" in his letters, and it is probable that Helen Dunham was the sister he invited to see the Spanish dancer Carmencita in 1892. The following year, they attended a play featuring the Italian actress Eleonora Duse. Sargent painted Dunham's portrait in 1892 and probably made this striking drawing a few years later. It is one of his earliest portraits in charcoal and seems to reflect his affection for her. The rich, velvety black background boldly sets off Dunham's profile, which the artist carefully outlined. The shimmering highlights in her hair were likely made through erasure, perhaps using pellets of bread, as was Sargent's custom. Charcoal on paper, c. 1895 Private collection This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
36. JSS_200227_233.JPG: Dr. Denman Waldo Ross 1853–1935 For much of his life, Denman Ross pursued a globetrotting quest for excellence in design. His travels took him to Central and South America, Egypt, China, Japan, India, Cambodia, Persia, and elsewhere. In the process, he became an early collector of art that was then little known in the United States. Ross's theories of art and design influenced a generation of students at Harvard University, where he taught for over twenty-five years. He reached a wider audience through publications such as A Theory of Pure Design (1907), which contributed to the predominance of abstract formal elements in modern art and architecture. Convinced that great art should be publicly accessible, Ross donated roughly 11,000 objects from his collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. To honor his contributions, the Museum commissioned this portrait. In 2003, the Denman Waldo Ross Society was established to recognize other important supporters of the Museum. Charcoal on paper, 1917 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; gift of the Committee on the Museum This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
37. JSS_200227_240.JPG: Robert Henry Benson 1850–1929 As senior partner of his family's venerable merchant banking firm, Robert Henry Benson financed innovations in electrical power and machinery, as well as the expansion of railways in the United States and Canada. Benson devoted much of his wealth to collecting art. Together with his wife, Evelyn Holford, he acquired important examples of Chinese porcelain and assembled a world-renowned collection of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italian paintings. Benson was also interested in contemporary art and became a friend of Sargent's after buying his painting Cashmere (1908) from the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1909. The financier commissioned Sargent to produce at least six charcoal portraits of himself and his family. Even in this relatively spare composition, the careful modeling of Benson's face suggests the kindly and placid disposition for which he was widely admired. Charcoal on paper, 1912 Collection of Mr. Robin Benson This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
38. JSS_200227_244.JPG: Mary Smyth Hunter 1857–1933 Known for her exuberant personality and extravagant generosity, Mary Smyth Hunter attracted many artists, musicians, and writers to the lavish parties she hosted at her London residence and country estate. She dedicated much of her husband's coal mining fortune to art patronage. Her collection included works by Paul Helleu, Claude Monet, and Auguste Rodin, along with several of Sargent's Venetian watercolors. Hunter, who became one of Sargent's closest friends, served as the model for two of his paintings and at least three of his drawings. The artist also designed a costume for one of Hunter's theatrical roles. This portrait has an experimental quality, with brisk strokes of charcoal that suggest, rather than define, the fur collar and feathered hat. The markmaking also conveys the subject's remarkable vivacity. Hunter's sister, Ethel Smyth (whose portrait hangs in an adjacent gallery), described her sibling as exuding "that sense of enjoying life to the utmost." Charcoal on paper, c. 1904 Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, New York; gift of James O. Belden in memory of Evelyn Berry Belden This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
39. JSS_200227_253.JPG: Sir William Blake Richmond 1842–1921 One of the most successful English artists of his day, William Blake Richmond worked in a variety of media, including sculpture, stained glass, mosaic, and painting. He is best known for his portraits of eminent contemporaries and for the ambitious group of mosaics he designed for St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which revived centuries-old techniques used in Byzantine churches. Richmond's love of color and light spurred his side career as an outspoken clean-air activist. In 1898, he founded the Coal Abatement Society, which remains active over 120 years later as Environmental Protection UK. Richmond and Sargent were friends, and this drawing was probably made in October 1910, when they were both staying at a villa near Florence, Italy. Richmond was then in considerable pain, suffering from a protracted bout of rheumatic fever. Sargent portrayed him in a convalescent mode, wrapped in a large overcoat, against the chill autumn air. Charcoal on paper, c. 1910 Lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
40. JSS_200227_262.JPG: Double Self-Portrait Notoriously reticent, Sargent disliked shining the spotlight on himself. Out of the 1,300 or more portraits in various media that he produced in his lifetime, he portrayed himself in only a half dozen or so. His claim that the process of making self-portraits "bored" him is symptomatic of his growing aversion to portraiture in general. After painting his last self-portrait in 1906 at the request of the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Sargent declared, "I have long been sick and tired of portrait painting, and while I was painting my own ‘mug' I firmly resolved to devote myself to other branches of art as soon as possible." Sargent's ongoing work in charcoal portraits proved to be the exception to that rule. In this drawing, Sargent experimented with two angles of representation, as if hinting at the impossibility of capturing the essence of a person in a single image. Graphite on paper, 1902 Private collection, Columbus, Georgia This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
41. JSS_200227_271.JPG: The Souls The social group known as the Souls included some thirty young men and women from aristocratic British families. Repulsed by what they saw as the mindless materialism of the late Victorian age, they met at weekend house parties for intellectual pursuits, ranging from brain-teasing games to serious-minded discussion. Their deep engagement with issues of morality, religion, art, and literature was intended as a rebuke to the frivolous pursuits more typical of the elite, such as gambling, hunting, and racing. But their earnestness was often mocked by outsiders. One scoffed that the friends passed their time talking about each other's souls, thus providing their moniker. The Souls prided themselves on the progressive inclusivity of their social gatherings. Political differences were accepted, and the women participated on an equal footing with the men. Several female members distinguished themselves through unconventional dress and a taste for avant-garde art and literature. For a time, their glamorous example made it fashionable for women to be well-read and to attend academic lectures. Sargent, who became the group's unofficial portraitist, made charcoal portraits of many of these exceptional women, several of which are on display here.
42. JSS_200227_275.JPG: Lady Diana Manners 1892–1986 High-spirited, beautiful, and eccentric, Lady Diana Manners was at the center of a coterie of young, intellectual aristocrats who dominated British social headlines in the years leading up to World War I. Most of her male friends died in battle while she and her female friends worked as nurses. After the war, Lady Diana half-heartedly pursued a career in journalism before discovering a passion for acting. In the early 1920s, she starred in two of the earliest feature-length color films. However, she made her name in a multi-year, international tour of Max Reinhardt's play The Miracle, in which she played a statue of the Virgin Mary that comes to life. She gained even greater acclaim in the role of diplomatic hostess, serving with distinction during her husband's ambassadorship to France (1944–47). Her witty three-volume autobiography provides a unique perspective on the political and social events of her lifetime. Charcoal on paper, 1914 Private collection This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
43. JSS_200227_281.JPG: Margaret "Margot" Asquith 1864–1945 Margot Asquith courted controversy throughout her life by defying the polite norms of behavior imposed on upper-class British women. Her quick wit and acid-sharp tongue delighted some and offended others but left no doubt of her keen intelligence. As a young woman, she was at the center of the Souls, a group of aristocratic intellectuals who aspired to high ideals of the mind and spirit. Following her marriage in 1894 to Herbert Henry Asquith, a Liberal Member of Parliament, she turned her attention to politics. Thanks in part to her social connections and fierce loyalty, he was elected prime minister in 1908 and led Britain through the early years of the First World War. After his death, she supported herself through writing, drawing on the diary she began in 1904. Her intention was to record "with absolute fidelity and indiscretion the private and political events of the coming years." Charcoal on paper, c. 1897 Lent by the National Portrait Gallery, London; gift of Edward Holroyd Pearce, Baron Pearce, 1960 This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
44. JSS_200227_286.JPG: Lt. Edward Wyndham Tennant 1897–1916 While still in his teens, Edward Wyndham Tennant developed a promising reputation as a poet. His precocious literary skills reflected the influence of his parents' intellectual social circle, the Souls. At the outbreak of World War I, seventeen-year-old Tennant was quick to offer his service, writing, "I have the feeling of immortality very strongly. I think of death with a light heart and as a friend whom there is no need to fear." Sargent portrayed Tennant in uniform in 1915, the year after the young man joined the Grenadier Guards. By the end of September 1916, Tennant would be dead, killed by sniper fire during the Battle of the Somme. Tennant's death at the age of nineteen epitomized the loss of a generation of young British aristocrats who had been groomed from childhood to become future leaders of their country. His mother published this drawing in her 1919 memoir of Tennant. Charcoal on paper, 1915 Collection of the Tennant Family This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
45. JSS_200227_291.JPG: Lady Helen Venetia Vincent 1866–1954 Lady Helen Vincent is shown here in the prime of her career as a magnetic political and intellectual hostess. A decade later, World War I brought a halt to her glittering lifestyle as a leading light of the Souls, the wife of a Conservative Member of Parliament, and "without doubt the most beautiful woman in England," according to Cassell's Magazine. Fluent in several languages, Lady Helen worked as a wartime nurse in military hospitals in France and Italy. Observing a critical need for anesthetists, she sidestepped the requirement of a medical degree and embarked on a privately arranged course that allowed her to administer chloroform and ether, which she did successfully on more than a thousand occasions. After the war, as the wife of the British ambassador, she reorganized the British Embassy and Residence in Berlin as part of her diplomatic mission. Charcoal on paper, c. 1905 York Museums Trust (York Art Gallery), York, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
46. JSS_200227_300.JPG: Lady Evelyn Charteris Vesey, Viscountess de Vesci 1849–1939 Lady de Vesci was born into the aristocratic Charteris family, whose members were among Sargent's closest friends. Her brother, the Honorable Evan Charteris, became the artist's biographer. Contemporary art was a subject of great interest to the Souls, and Lady de Vesci favored the work of Arts and Crafts movement leader William Morris, decorating her Irish country house, Abbey Leix, with his wallpapers and textiles. Sargent drew Lady de Vesci when she was in her early sixties, after her heyday as a prominent member of the Souls. With her somber attire, unsmiling features, and penetrating stare, she presents a formidable appearance. One can feel the force of her personality in Sargent's vivid characterization. Charcoal on paper, 1910 Courtesy of Edward Melotte This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
47. JSS_200227_307.JPG: Ethel Grenfell, Lady Desborough 1867–1952 Few women of her generation were as well-connected in political, literary, and artistic circles as Lady Desborough. Her polished charm and resolute good cheer attracted a "Who's Who" of prominent public figures to her social gatherings, which were renowned for their lavishness. In this drawing, Sargent capitalized on Lady Desborough's reputation as a glamorous hostess, showing her in formal evening attire with a diamond crescent moon ornamenting her hair. Like other female members of the Souls, Lady Desborough was a voracious reader and largely self-taught. Her commitment to nonpartisan political discussion made her the trusted confidante of six successive prime ministers. She was also on intimate terms with the royal family, serving for many years in the household of Queen Mary. Her formidable executive skills even impressed the socialist Beatrice Webb, who remarked that she "ought to be the head of a great institution." Charcoal on paper, 1909 Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement, Firle, East Sussex, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
48. JSS_200227_312.JPG: Political Leaders The links between money, class, and power shifted substantially during Sargent's lifetime. With the rise of American wealth and power, the European aristocracy became increasingly outmoded. For Sargent's sitters on both sides of the Atlantic, the first decades of the twentieth century brought enormous change. Millions of men and women lost their lives in World War I (1914 –18), and social shifts that had begun before the war intensified. Along with this transformation, new leaders emerged who brought about progressive political reforms. Civil rights cases were successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Women's roles in government and society expanded dramatically. The right to vote was extended to most British and American women in 1918 and 1920, respectively. Many of Sargent's sitters actively campaigned for these social and political changes; others vehemently opposed them. Notably, a review of a 1916 exhibition of Sargent's portrait drawings cited his works as documents of a fraught period of history, observing: "They form a record . . . of some of the men and women who are struggling through a tempest unparalleled in the history of the world."
49. JSS_200227_315.JPG: Moorfield Storey 1845–1929 Moorfield Storey was a leading civil rights attorney and an outspoken opponent of U.S. military intervention overseas. He served as president of the Anti-Imperialist League from 1905 until 1921 and as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1909 until 1929. He also advocated for the rights of Native Americans and successfully brought cases before the Supreme Court concerning voting rights, residential segregation, and the prevention of lynchings and mob intimidation in criminal cases. Storey famously declared, "One of the greatest dangers which threatens this country today is racial prejudice and it should be the duty of every person with any influence to discourage it." Despite his serious purpose, Storey was not without humor, once joking that this charcoal portrait by Sargent might be considered "a fraud on the public, since it represents such an amiable old gentleman instead of a ferocious bruiser." Charcoal on paper, 1917 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; partial gift of James Moorfield Storey This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
50. JSS_200227_327.JPG: Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother 1900–2002 This sensitive portrait captures Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on the threshold of a new life. She sat for Sargent just weeks before marrying Prince Albert, Duke of York, second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Unsure that she was suited for public life, Lady Elizabeth refused the prince at least three times before finally accepting his proposal. He unexpectedly became King George VI upon his brother's abdication in 1936, and she endeared herself to the British public by her courage and compassion during the Second World War. Sargent was commissioned to make drawings of Lady Elizabeth and Prince Albert as gifts for the couple's wedding in April 1923. The artist later declared Lady Elizabeth to be "the only completely unselfconscious sitter I ever had," in marked contrast to her notoriously shy and nervous husband. After George VI died in 1952, she assumed the role of Queen Mother when her daughter Elizabeth II ascended to the throne. Charcoal on paper, 1923 Lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
51. JSS_200227_330.JPG: Sir Winston Churchill 1874–1965 Winston Churchill is Britain's most celebrated twentieth-century statesman, best known for his service as prime minister during World War II. From the beginning of his political career, he stood out from the crowd, gaining notoriety as the ambitious, provocative, combative, and determined son of the statesman Lord Randolph Churchill and his American wife, Jennie Jerome, whose portrait is displayed nearby. In this drawing, Churchill wears the robes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, one of several important political positions he occupied before his appointment as prime minister in 1940. An avid amateur artist, Churchill copied several of the paintings by Sargent in the collection of their mutual friend Sir Philip Sassoon, whose portrait hangs in an adjacent gallery. Sassoon commissioned this portrait as a gift for Churchill. It is one of the last works that Sargent produced. Charcoal on paper, 1925 National Trust Collections, Chartwell (The Churchill Collection), Kent, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
52. JSS_200227_339.JPG: Dwight F. Davis 1879–1945 The tennis event that is known today as the Davis Cup originated in 1900, when Dwight F. Davis and three other members of the Harvard University tennis team invited a team of British players to compete in an "International Lawn Tennis Challenge." Davis devised the format for the tournament and commissioned a silver trophy to be awarded to the winners, for which he personally paid the substantial sum of $1,000. Davis went on to serve in World War I and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism. Here, Sargent represents him in military uniform, with the medal displayed prominently on his chest. Shortly before this drawing was made, Davis had been appointed assistant secretary of war by President Warren G. Harding. He went on to become secretary of war under President Calvin Coolidge, in 1925, and served as governor general of the Philippines from 1929 to 1932. Charcoal on paper, 1923 Private collection This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
53. JSS_200227_350.JPG: Nancy Astor 1879–1964 Nancy Astor made history in 1919 as the first woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons, where she served as a Conservative Member. The daughter of a prosperous railroad entrepreneur from Virginia, she had moved to England after divorcing her first husband. Subsequently, she married Waldorf Astor, the son of enormously wealthy American expatriates. Despite her pioneering political role, Astor's legacy is decidedly mixed. She championed certain women's issues, such as widows' pensions and equal employment opportunities, yet she openly expressed bigoted views on race and religion. This drawing, made when Astor was in her late twenties, marks the beginning of her playful friendship with Sargent, which endured until the artist's death. It captures Astor's youthful zest -- face expressive and mobile, lips just parted, hair flame-like in the light. Sargent made a rare exception to his embargo on painted portraits for Astor in 1908. Charcoal on paper, 1907 Collection of The Viscount Astor This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
54. JSS_200227_358.JPG: Jeanette Jerome Churchill, Lady Randolph Churchill 1854–1921 Brooklyn-born Jeanette Jerome was the daughter of an American financier. In 1874, she joined the British aristocracy through her marriage to Lord Randolph Churchill, son of the seventh Duke of Marlborough. Throughout the 1880s, she proved an invaluable asset to her husband's political career, essentially serving as his campaign manager and helping to establish the Primrose League, which boosted the Conservative party. Although vehemently opposed to women's suffrage, she paved the way for women's acceptance in the political sphere. Following her husband's death in 1895, Lady Randolph turned her attention to writing. She founded the Anglo-Saxon Review in 1899 and later published a memoir, a collection of articles, and two plays. She also provided advice and assistance to her son, future Prime Minister Winston Churchill (whose portrait hangs nearby). He described her as "an ardent ally, furthering my plans and guarding my interests with all her influence and boundless energy." Charcoal on paper, c. 1900 National Trust Collections, Chartwell (The Churchill Collection), Kent, UK This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
55. JSS_200227_368.JPG: Bostonians Although he lived abroad for most of his life, Sargent often returned to Boston, regarding that cultural and intellectual hub to be his American home. Close and lasting friendships exerted a magnetic attraction, and the city's institutions undoubtedly bolstered his career. Sargent's first solo exhibition was held at Boston's St. Botolph Club in 1888, and his three ambitious mural cycles, which he considered his greatest achievement, were carried out at the Boston Public Library (1890 –1919), the Museum of Fine Arts (1916 –25), and Harvard University's Widener Library (1921–22). Following Sargent's death in 1925, the Museum of Fine Arts mounted a memorial exhibition of his work. It is likely that there was a related display of some seventy charcoal portraits borrowed from private collections. Indeed, through the years, Sargent created portraits of many of Boston's most prominent residents, initially in oil and later in charcoal. The portraits in this gallery represent a cross-section of the Bostonians drawn by Sargent over the course of twenty-five years.
56. JSS_200227_372.JPG: Rt. Rev. William Lawrence 1850–1941 The Right Reverend William Lawrence served as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts from 1893 to 1927, but his influence on religious and civic life reached beyond the boundaries of his diocese. The son of a wealthy Boston industrialist and a friend of the preeminent Gilded Age financier J. P. Morgan, Lawrence was instrumental in founding the Harvard Business School, believing it important to promote morality in the business leaders of the future. In his essay "The Relation of Wealth to Morals" (1901), Lawrence declared that "godliness is in league with riches." This commissioned portrait follows the format that Sargent developed during the latter half of the 1910s, when he spent much of his time in Boston while painting a series of murals. By placing the headand- shoulders portrait against a dark background rendered with vigorous strokes of charcoal, he created an impression of energy as well as spatial depth. Charcoal on paper, 1916 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; gift of Rt. Rev. Frederic C. Lawrence This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
57. JSS_200227_380.JPG: Thomas Whittemore 1871–1950 The archaeologist Thomas Whittemore played a leading role in the conservation of the magnificent Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. While teaching English literature at Tufts University, he became interested in ancient and medieval art, developing a passion for Byzantine art. Whittemore persuaded patrons on both sides of the Atlantic to support projects he developed in Europe and the Middle East. The first of these was the Committee for Relief of Refugees in Russia, which he established in 1916, with the support of Henry Higginson (whose portrait is displayed in the adjacent corridor). In 1930, Whittemore founded the Byzantine Institute of America in Boston, which later merged with Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. Whittemore was also an avid collector of early manuscripts and coins, and he gave a large part of his collection to the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, where he served as keeper of coins. Charcoal on paper, 1922 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; gift from Thomas Whittemore to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1922–24 This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
58. JSS_200227_385.JPG: Charlotte Nichols Greene 1881–1955 Stephen Greene 1914–1979 A generous art collector and philanthropist, Charlotte Nichols Greene gave several important works to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In addition, she donated funds for future acquisitions. Following Sargent's death in 1925, she purchased paintings and drawings at his studio sale in London. Among them were studies for his murals in the Boston Public Library. Greene's son Stephen, shown here at the age of ten, went on to become a writer, journalist, and founder of the Stephen Greene Press, a small publishing house. During various trips to Boston between 1914 and 1924, Sargent captured all the members of the Greene family. This double portrait is a rare format in the artist's oeuvre. Charcoal on paper, 1924 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; gift of Mrs. Stephen Greene This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
59. JSS_200227_393.JPG: Dr. Charles Fleischer 1871–1942 Born in humble circumstances in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), Charles Fleischer immigrated to the United States in 1880. As the charismatic rabbi of Temple Adath Israel in Boston from 1895 to 1911, he championed a radical reinterpretation of Judaism that linked it to progressive causes and American democracy, which he considered "potentially a universal spiritual principle, aye, a religion." The rabbi's services attracted an eclectic group of Jewish and non-Jewish liberals and intellectuals. Sargent, a good friend, thought Fleischer resembled Edgar Allan Poe and bore out the likeness in this drawing. Increasingly averse to religious division, by 1912 Fleischer had opened the non-sectarian congregation Sunday Commons. There, he continued to advocate for social justice and the power of democratic principles to unify America's ethnically diverse society. Seeking a wider audience, Fleischer eventually relocated to New York City in 1922 and spent the rest of his career working for the Evening Journal and as a radio commentator and lecturer. Charcoal on paper, 1903 Private collection This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
60. JSS_200227_399.JPG: Dr. William Sturgis Bigelow 1850–1926 The Boston physician William Sturgis Bigelow is remembered as a collector of Japanese art. As a young medical researcher, he had studied with Louis Pasteur in Paris and established one of the first bacteriology laboratories in the United States. However, in 1882 he made a trip to Japan that changed the course of his life. Fascinated by the culture, he remained until 1889 and continued his study of Asian art and religions after returning to Boston. In this portrait, he wears the Japanese Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, at the time the highest distinction bestowed on civilians. Upon his death, Bigelow donated his collection of more than 40,000 works of Japanese art, including 30,000 prints, to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, helping to create the largest collection of Japanese art outside of Japan. This portrait was commissioned to honor his contributions to the Museum. Charcoal and white chalk on paper, 1917 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; gift of the Committee on the Museum This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
61. JSS_200227_408.JPG: Eleonora Sears 1881–1968 Eleonora Randolph Sears refused to comply with the limitations placed on women's behavior. She was arrested for smoking in public and condemned as "immodest" for wearing trousers. She made her most decisive mark as a groundbreaking athlete, participating in nineteen sports ranging from figure skating to boxing to football. Having garnered as many as 240 athletic trophies, she was especially adept at racket sports. Sears won the U.S. doubles tennis championship four times between 1911 and 1917 and became the first female national squash champion in 1928. In April of that year, she made one of her numerous long-distance walks between Newport, Rhode Island, and her home in Boston, covering seventy-four miles in sixteen hours despite pouring rain. Upon her death, the Boston Globe proclaimed Sears as "probably the most versatile performer that sports has ever produced -- not just the most versatile female performer, but the most versatile, period." Charcoal on paper, 1921 Private collection, Columbus, Georgia This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
62. JSS_200227_418.JPG: Edward Augustus Silsbee 1826–1900 Following his retirement as an American merchant seaman, Captain Edward Silsbee developed a passion for the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. While living in Florence between 1872 and 1879, Silsbee ingratiated himself with Claire Clairmont, who had been an intimate companion of Shelley's. She possessed some of the poet's letters, which Silsbee reportedly hoped to acquire. He appears to have had a brief affair with Clairmont's niece but balked at her proposal of marriage, which may have been the price for the letters. The story would inspire The Aspern Papers (1888), a novella by Henry James, whose portrait by Sargent hangs in an adjacent gallery. Silsbee and Sargent likely first met in the 1870s while the young artist was living with his parents in Florence. The latter reconnected on one of Sargent's visits to Boston, where Silsbee sat for this sensitive portrait near the end of his life. Charcoal on paper, 1899 The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford; gift of the sitter This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit.
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