Mrs. Gardner
primary
John Singer Sargent
(Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
subject
Isabella Stewart Gardner
(New York, 1840 - 1924, Boston)
Date1887
Place MadeNew York City, New York, United States, North America
MediumGraphite on wove paper
Dimensions20.5 x 12.9 cm (8 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.)
ClassificationsDrawings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession number1.2.r.27
eMuseum ID728402
Original Number2.2.o.73
EmbARK ObjectID13970
TMS Source ID2805
Last Updated10/3/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella Gardner and John Singer Sargent first met in 1886 in the artist’s studio in London. There Gardner admired Sargent’s daring portrait Madame X (now the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) so much that she commissioned him to paint her likeness. This sketch of Gardner’s head set against a dark background was probably an early preparatory drawing for the oil portrait which Sargent painted from December 1887 to January 1888. Gardner inscribed the drawing with Sargent’s name and the date, most likely recording when she received the sympathetic portrait from him as a gift.
Source: Oliver Tostmann and Anne-Marie Eze, The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by John Singer Sargent in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection, exhibition on view in the Museum's Fenway Gallery, October 31, 2013–January 20, 2014.
Source: Oliver Tostmann and Anne-Marie Eze, The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by John Singer Sargent in Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Collection, exhibition on view in the Museum's Fenway Gallery, October 31, 2013–January 20, 2014.
BibliographyNotesRollin van N. Hadley (ed.). Drawings: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1968), p. 48, no. 23. (inscribed and dated by Isabella Gardner)
Rollin van N. Hadley and Frances L. Preston. "Berenson and Mrs. Gardner: The Venetian Influence." Fenway Court (1972), pp. 11-17.
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings (New Haven, 1998), I, The Early Portraits, p. 211.
Rollin van N. Hadley and Frances L. Preston. "Berenson and Mrs. Gardner: The Venetian Influence." Fenway Court (1972), pp. 11-17.
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings (New Haven, 1998), I, The Early Portraits, p. 211.
MarksNotesInscribed by Isabella Stewart Gardner in pen and brown ink (lower right): John S. Sargent Feb. 28. 1888
Inscribed in pencil by an unknown hand (verso): ISG
Watermark: St. Louis / Bank Note Co
Inscribed in pencil by an unknown hand (verso): ISG
Watermark: St. Louis / Bank Note Co
ProvenanceNotesPresumably a gift from John Singer Sargent to Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888.
