Sargent's Women, An Exhibition (Frontpage)  (more on Exhibitions)  (Thumbnail Index)  (What's New)
 

 

  
Sargent's Women
 
 
Schedule  
 
    Adelson Galleries, New York 
    November 12th - December 13th, 2003  

    Adelson Galleries, Inc., is open to the public Monday-Friday 9:30-5:30, Saturday, 10:00-5:00. The galleries are located in The Mark Hotel, 25 East 77th Street, Third Floor, New York, NY.  
    Tel: 212.439.6800. 
    Fax: 212.439.6870. 
    Website: www.adelsongalleries.com. 
     
    Reviews of this show  

    Going to see the show? Write a review let me know what you thought. 
     

 


Overview   
 
 
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. 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.  

The show was inspired, we are told, 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.  

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 be also 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  

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.
 


Exhibition Catalouge    
 
 
Sargent's Women
 Introduction by Warren Adelson and essays by Deborah Davis, Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. The catalogue contains 151 pages with 52 illustrations and is available for $38.00 tax included. 
 
     


Curators  

Warren Adelson, president of Adelson Galleries with assitance from Elizabeth Oustinoff, director. 
 
 


Catalogue Index  

 
Alma Strettell (49) 

Artists Mother aboard Ship, The (27) 

 
By the River (51) 


Candelabra, The (43) 

 
Carmela Bertagna (9) 

Consolation: Violet Sargent and Flora Priestley (48) 

 
Dans les Oliviers, a Capri (3) 

 
Emily Sargent (28) 

 
Fanny Watts (oil) (21) 

Fanny Watts (pencil) (20) 

Flora Priestley (44) 

Flora Priestley by Lamplight (47) 

Fumee d'ambre gris, Study (1) 

 
Gust of Wind, A (41) 

 
Head of a Capri Girl (7) 

 
Head of Ana-Capri Girl (6) 

Head of a Venetian Model (15) 

 
Head of a Venetian Woman (8) 

 
Javanese Dancer, A (18) 

 
Javanese Girl at Her Toilette (19) 

Judith Gautier (42) 

 
Lily Millet (46) 

 
Madame Edouard Pailleron, Study (22) 


Madame Errazuriz (23) 

 
Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast (36)


Madame X, Study (37) 

Madame X, Study (38) 


Madame X, Study (39) 

 
Mrs. Charles Inches (25) 

 
Mrs. Frederick Barnard (45) 


Mrs. J. W Comyns Carr (26) 

Mrs. Sargent Sketching (35) 

 
Mrs. Wilton Phipps (24) 

Party of Ladies (52) 

 
Rosina (5) 

 
Rosina, Capri (2) 

Sketch after "El Jaleo" (14) 


Sketch of a Dancer; after "El Jaleo" (13) 

Spanish Gypsy Dancer (11) 


Spanish Gypsy Dancer (12)

 
Street in Venice (17) 


Stringing Onions (4) 


Study for "The Spanish Dance" (10) 

 
Under the Willows (50) 

 
Venetian Street (16) 

Violet Fishing
Violet Fishing (33) 

 
Violet in a Red Dress (32) 

Violet Reclining (30) 


Violet Resting (34) 

 
Violet Sargent (oil) (31) 


Violet Sargent (watercolor) (29) 

 
Whispers (40) 
  
  
  
Notes 

Special thanks to Andy Holzopfel, of Baltimore, for letting me know about this exhibition and being a true friend of the JSS Gallery.  See some of Andy Holzopfel's paintings.  

  
 
 
 


By:  Natasha Wallace
Copyright 1998-2004 all rights reserved
Created 10/21/2003