Italian
Girl with Fan
1882
Cincinnati
Art Museum
Oil on
canvas
238.1
x 133.4 cm (93 3/4 x 52 1/2
in.)
lower right: John S. Sargent 1882; on back of
original frame, now mounted on stretcher: J. S. Sargent Venice 1883
(sic)
The
Edward and Virginia
Irwin Memorial
Jpg:
local / Cincinnati
Art Museum
(click
on image to step
closer)
The painting is of the
Venetian
model Gigia Viani. She is used by John continuously in most of his
Venetian
studies. This particular portrait stands out from his other Venetian
work
in more ways than one. First of all, you can't dismiss its enormous
size.
At 2.38 meters high (7.8 feet) it is clearly larger than life. It is
also
one of the few clear full portraits of that trip -- as apposed to a
scene.
Linda Ayres
speculates (in John Singer
Sargent, Whitney Museum; "Sargent in Venice"; pp.49-73) that John had
been
intending this painting for the Paris Salon. This brings up a very
interesting
point. He had clearly connected with the critics in previous
exhibitions
with his "exotic portraits" such as A
Capriote (1879), Fumée d'Ambre Gris
(1880), and then, maybe exotic to a lesser extent but just a beautiful,
the wife of the Chilean consul in Paris Madame
Ramon Subercaseaux (1881). Could Sargent have been thinking of
using
this as a Salon submission? I think maybe so.
So why didn't
he show it?
In 1882 he was in
Venice in August,
so he had already submitted Lady
with the Rose for that year. The following Salon he only
shows
one painting -- the Boit's
Daughters.
Why only one when
he generally showed
more than one?
From all I've read,
nothing is ever
mentioned of a painting, or paintings by John that were refused by the
Salon. Does that mean everything Sargent ever submitted was accepted --
or do we just not know which paintings were refused? No one, that I've
found anyway, has even broached the subject. Odd, since to me it's one
of the more interesting questions about Sargent and the Salon. Maybe
its
not mentioned because no one knows.
Those particular
questions will have
to go unanswered for now. Linda Ayres tells us in a footnote that
apparently
Sargent didn't finish Italian Girl with Fan in '82. Ralph
Latimer
(a nephew of the Curtises) says that John had left the painting
unfinished
at the Palazzo
Barbao
in '82 and subsequent years. He eventually, of course, would finish it
at some point in time and John said of it, according to Latimer, "I
have
never painted a better head."
Now you can imply
that Sargent was
talking about this particular painting, but I think he might have been
talking about the model Gigia Viani in general. She is, after all,
stunning
with that uniquely recognizable and adorable way she cocks her head. Ralph
Curtis painted her. Many others must have as well. Sargent paints
her
continuously in those two years he was doing his Venetian Studies --
placing
her in situation of everyday life: carrying
water, stringing beads,
strolling
down the back Venetian Streets or
within
one of those massive, though neglected,
Palazzi.
David McKibbin's
(worked for the
Fine Arts Museum, Boston and one of the first Sargentologist)
speculates
that possibly Gigia is not holding a fan in this painting but a bundle
of glass tubes prior to being cut as in "Venetian
Glass Workers". This, to me, makes a lot of sense and would
fall
in line with his other scenes.
I have found very
little on the model
Gigia Viani but to see her, to see her in the settings that Sargent has
placed her -- the everyday life of the everyday person makes me want to
know so much more about her. A beauty not unlike Rosina Ferrara from
Capri,
begs the question of what is the story behind this remarkable face?
Notes:
Exhibitions
John Singer
Sargent,
An Exhibition -- Whitney
Museum, NY & The Art Institute of Chicago 1986-1987
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