Mosquito Nets
John Singer Sargent -- American painter 
1908
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Oil on canvas 
56.5 x 71.8 cm (22 1/4 x 28 1/4 in.)  
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, and Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund,  1993.18
Jpg: ARC
 
  
The painting was done in Valdemosa, Majorca, where they were spending an autumn.  Sargent's older sister Emily, is in the chair (foreground) reading a book, with their friend Eliza Wedgwood, a member of the famous porcelain manufacturing family, on the sofa (background), either reading or writing a letter.  

Eliza said of it, "Sargent painted in oils such an amusing picture of Emily and me--in what John called 'Garde Mangers,' Emily's invention for keeping out mosquitoes." 
(American Tonalism Detroit Institute of Arts)

Notes:

Bibliography:    
Ormond, Richard, "John Singer Sargent: paintings, drawings, watercolors," New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

Illustration:    
Ormond, Richard, "John Singer Sargent," New York: Harper & Row, 1970, pl. 101.
    
SIRIS IAP 81890077
CMM K0811
 

 

Created 10/15/2002