Sargent’s Women

November 12 – December 13, 2003

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) Lily Millet, c. 1885-1886 oil on canvas 34 3/8 x 26 1/2 inches Private collection — John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Lily Millet, c. 1885-1886
oil on canvas
34 3/8 x 26 1/2 inches
Private collection

SARGENT'S WOMEN, AN INNOVATIVE LOOK AT THE EARLY CAREER OF JOHN SINGER SARGENT, TO BE SHOWN AT ADELSON GALLERIES, INC. IN NOVEMBER 2003

In the early years of John Singer Sargent's professional career, from 1878 to 1890, the artist was strongly attracted to distinctive and glamorous women and exotic subjects. From November 12 through December 13, 2003, Adelson Galleries, Inc. in New York City will present Sargent's Women, a unique loan exhibition of approximately 50 oil paintings and watercolors from museums and private collectors. The lenders include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio and The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the first exhibition to focus on this aspect of the artist's body of work and will offer an innovative look at Sargent's artistic attentions and intentions as revealed by exploring the relationships he developed with a number of exceptional women. Several of the paintings to be shown here have rarely or never been publicly displayed.

This exhibition was inspired by the revelation in a recently solved mystery as to the identification of a woman named Amélie Gautreau (who, it turns out, is "Madame X"). In a letter written jointly with Sargent to a mutual friend she reveals her true feelings toward her portrait, infamously known as Madame X (1884, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Warren Adelson, president of Adelson Galleries, decided to present Sargent's Women as a way of examining the relationships that Sargent cultivated with the many extraordinary women in his life. "We felt a gaping hole in the understanding of Sargent was his obvious passion for the many young and exotic women that he encountered and painted, yet never discussed," said Mr. Adelson.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born in Florence, Italy to American parents. He studied in Paris at the atelier of Carolus-Duran and at the École des Beaux-Arts. Sargent first came to public attention in 1878 when he exhibited Oyster Gatherers of Cancale (1878, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), for which he won an Honorable Mention at the Paris Salon. His career as a portrait artist began in Paris with a modest number of commissions, but it was not until the portrait of the Parisian socialite Mme. Virginie Gautreau (Madame X, 1884, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1884 that he gained notoriety. It was not, however, the acclaim he had envisioned. The audacity of the portrait so outraged the public and caused such a controversy that it compromised Sargent's career and contributed to his decision to leave France and resettle in London. There, he quickly rose to prominence, and by the 1890s he had become the leading portrait artist to the upper classes. Sargent experienced a positive reception in America, particularly in Boston where he had been commissioned to paint murals for the Boston Public Library and subsequently for the Museum of Fine Arts. John Singer Sargent died in London in April, 1925 on the eve of a trip to return to Boston to complete his mural installation.

Featured in Sargent's Women will be paintings of family members, including his mother and sisters, close friends such as Judith Gautier, Lily Millet, Fanny Watts, the remarkable Virginie Amélie Gautreau and his favorite models. Among the highlights of the show will be an oil study for Fumée d'Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris) (1880), which has not been displayed in the United States in 40 years (it is the first version of the larger work in the collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts), as well as an intimate pencil study for Madame X in a private collection that has rarely been seen. Making its debut public appearance will be the full-length portrait, Madame Pierre Gautreau (1897) by Antonio de la Gandara, the last portrait the sitter commissioned of herself. It hung in her living room for the rest of her life and has remained in the possession of her American cousins since her death. Two important artifacts will also be on view. First, the letter written jointly by Mme. Gautreau and Sargent to a mutual friend while her portrait was being painted, in which Mme. Gautreau reveals that "Mr. Sargent has made a masterpiece of the portrait." Also to be shown is the ledger kept by Mme. Gautreau's mother-in-law, in which she recorded in meticulous detail the amount spent on the young woman's rice powder-the secret behind her legendary complexion-and the black satin possibly purchased for the evening gown worn in the infamous portrait. The document offers fresh insights into reconstructing the family's life and dynamics.

Uniquely qualified to present the artist's work in this context, Adelson Galleries, Inc. is noted for its expertise in the field of American art and the work of John Singer Sargent in particular. In 1980, Warren Adelson, an internationally recognized authority on Sargent, initiated scholarship on the John Singer Sargent Catalogue Raisonné in partnership with the artist's great-nephew, Richard Ormond. To date, two volumes of the Catalogue Raisonné have been published by Yale University Press, and Volume III is due in November 2003. The gallery has also made significant contributions to the study of American art through critically acclaimed loan exhibitions and accompanying publications, including Maurice Prendergast: Paintings of America (2003), From the Artist's Studio: Unknown Prints and Drawings by Mary Cassatt (2000), Childe Hassam: An American Impressionist (1999) and Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes (1997).

Assisting Mr. Adelson in organizing Sargent's Women is Elizabeth Oustinoff, director of Adelson Galleries and co-author of Sargent Abroad. A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue will be published with an introduction by Mr. Adelson and essays by Deborah Davis, author of Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X (Tarcher/Putnam); Richard Ormond, co-author of The Complete Paintings of John Singer Sargent (Yale University Press), noted scholar and author of numerous books on 19th-century English artists and the artist's great-nephew; and Elaine Kilmurray, research director of the Sargent catalogue raisonné project and co-author of The Complete Paintings of John Singer Sargent.

On November 11, a preview of Sargent's Women to benefit the Pocantico Society of Historic Hudson Valley will be held. On November 20, a gala benefit evening for the National Breast Cancer Coalition will be held with a lecture by author Deborah Davis.