Yoho Falls
painter
John Singer Sargent
(Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Date1916
Place MadeCanada, North America
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions94 x 113 cm (37 x 44 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP3e7
eMuseum ID723994
EmbARK ObjectID10871
TMS Source ID137
Last Updated10/22/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIn the summer of 1916, John Singer Sargent felt a need for a respite from working on his mural scheme for the Boston Public Library and made plans to travel to the Candadian Rockies. Isabella Stewart Gardner took an interest in his trip and promised to buy a picture of Yoho Falls should Sargent manage to paint one. Sargent camped in a remote area under the falls and wrote to Isabella, "It is magnificent when the sun shines, which it did for the first two days. & I began a picture——that is ten days ago——and since then it has been raining and snowing steadily——provisions and temper getting low——but I shall stick it out till the sun reappears..." Sargent did indeed stick it out and Isabella purchased the picture that fall. It now hangs in the Blue Room gallery of her museum.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 40.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 226-27.
Rebecca W. Karo. “Ah Wilderness! Sargent in the Rockies, 1916.” Fenway Court (1976), pp. 20-29.
Hilliard Goldfarb et al. Sargent: The Late Landscapes. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1999), p.112, no. 12.
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray (ed.). John Singer Sargent Figures and Landscapes, 1914-1925: Complete Paintings, Vol. IX (New Haven and London, 2016), pp. 146-47, cat. 1796.
Courtney Mason, "John Singer Sargent's Sojourn in the Rocky Mountains," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 14 October 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/john-singer-sargents-sojourn-rocky-mountains
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 226-27.
Rebecca W. Karo. “Ah Wilderness! Sargent in the Rockies, 1916.” Fenway Court (1976), pp. 20-29.
Hilliard Goldfarb et al. Sargent: The Late Landscapes. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1999), p.112, no. 12.
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray (ed.). John Singer Sargent Figures and Landscapes, 1914-1925: Complete Paintings, Vol. IX (New Haven and London, 2016), pp. 146-47, cat. 1796.
Courtney Mason, "John Singer Sargent's Sojourn in the Rocky Mountains," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 14 October 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/john-singer-sargents-sojourn-rocky-mountains
MarksNotesSigned and dated (upper left): John S. Sargent 1916
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from John Singer Sargent, Boston on 26 November 1916 for $2,500.