John Singer Sargent's A Spanish Barracks

John Singer Sargent's A Spanish Barracks (Frontpage) (Thumbnail Index) (What's New) (Refer This Site)

A Spanish Barracks
John Singer Sargent -- American painter
c.1901
Private collection
Watercolor and pencil on paper
30.2 by 45.4 cm (11 7/8 by 17 7/8 in.)
signed John S. Sargent, dated 1906 and inscribed to my friend Dr. Hugh Playfair, u.r.
Jpg: Sothebys

From: Sothebys

A letter from David McKibbin dated September 1966 (from the Library of the Boston Athenaeum) to Mr. Fraad notes, "Your Spanish Barracks which was given to Dr. Playfair in 1906 was I think painted in 1903 when Sargent was at Santiago de Compostela, for the scene is the Hospital Real there, where a whole series of soldiers convalescing was made. These pictures are variously called Hospital at Granada, Seville, etc. but there is no doubt that this is one of the older southern courts in the S.de C Hos.Real."
(Sothebys)

Spanish Solders
1903

Notes:

Exhibitions

London, England, Royal Society of Painters in Water-Coulours, Centenary Exhibition, Summer 1904, no. 86, p. 22
London, England, Carfax Gallery, April 1905, no. 4

Liverpool, England, Walker Art Gallery, Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, 1922, no. 730, p. 48 (as The Hospital)

Brooklyn, New York, The Brooklyn Museum; Andover, Massachusetts, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, American Painting: Selections from the Collection of Daniel and Rita Fraad, June-November 1964, no. 29, p. 37, illustrated

New York, Pembroke College Club of New York, Amel Gallery, A Contemporary Art Exhibit from the Private Collections of Brown and Pembroke Alumni and Friends of the University, April 1965

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 200 Years of Watercolor Painting in America: An Exhibition Commemorating the Centennial of the American Watercolor Society, December 1966-January 1967, no. 106, p. 20
Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum,

American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad, May-July 1985, no. 14, pp. 32-33, illustrated

Bibliography

Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent: Painting, Drawings, Watercolors, New York, 1970, p. 250

This watercolor will be included in a forthcoming volume of the J.S. Sargent catalogue raisonné by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, in collaboration with Warren Adelson and Elizabeth Oustinoff.

Provenance

Dr. Hugh Playfair, London, England
Mrs. Hugh Playfair (his wife), London, England, 1928
Major General I.S.O. Playfair (Dr. Playfair's nephew), 1928
Sale: Christie's, London, July 9, 1963, lot 33 (as Three Men Seated on the Pavement of a Sunlit Portico)
John Nicholson Gallery, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Rita and Daniel Fraad
Acquired from the above, 1963

Sale

Sold Sothebys December 1, 2004, Sale N08032, lot 24, $142,400 USD; estimated 150,000—250,000 USD

See the year in review 1903