1916, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, hosted at the Grafton Galleries

• Schedule
• Overview
• Catalogue
• Reviews
• Notes

Grafton Galleries, London
Opened June, 1916

Sargent exhibited 46 of his "mugs" spanning 26 years (1890-1916) and was the main feature of the show. Other members of the Society also exhibiting included (at least in part): William Bruce Ellis Ranken, William Orpen, John Lavery, James Jebusa Shannon, and Fiddes Watts.

Sargent was in the United States at the time and did not attend.

Sargent's part of the show was brought together as a benifit by Miss Elizabeth Asquith, chairwoman of the Arts Fund. She was the daughter of the Prime Minister Herbert Henry and second wife Margot Asquith. In an e-mail, Matt Davies tells me  "In 1919 (I am pretty sure that was the year) [Miss Elizabeth Asquith] married a Rumanian diplomat, Prince Antoine Bibesco. Her brother was Anthony (nicknamed 'Puffin'), whose portrait was exhibited." Paul Darby writes that she was painted by Augustus John in 1924.
 
 

Listing of known work shown (23 of 46 accounted for by name)


Elizabeth Asquith
1914


Master Anthony Asquith
c. 1908
(Son of the Prime Minister)
 


Lady Cynthia Charteris
Mrs. Herbert Asquith
(daughter in-law to the Prime Minister)
1909


Misses Barnard (37)
 
 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery


Guy Benson (18) [5]
 

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Capt. Rex Benson (20) [5]
 

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Study for Carmencita [3]
c. 1890
 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery

Lord Cromer [1]
1902?
 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery

Christian de Wet [7]


Mrs Charles Hunter
c. 1902

 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery

Master George Lewis [4]


Lady Diana Manners
1914
 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery

Lady Marjorie Manner (Marchioness of Anglesey) [6 sister to Lady Diana Manners]

 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery

George Meredith (23) [n/a]
 

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Mme Rejane [2]
 

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Lady Ritchie [n/a]


Sir W B Richmond (34)
1912


Countess of Rocksavage
1912


Dr. Ethel Smyth
1901


Earl Spencer
1916


Miss Viola Tree
1907
 

Please, someone send me this image and become a Friend of the JSS Gallery

Father Nicolay Velimirovitch [n/a]


Earl of Wemyss
1908

Drawings not known for sure, but highly probable include:
 


Hugo Charteris
1916?


Violet Manners Charteris
1916?
 

Reviews

From: Daily Mail     3 June 1916
Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Grafton Galleries

"The Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition, which opens to-day at the Grafton Galleries, is made notable by a gallery completely filled with Sargent portrait drawings in charcoal. The proceeds of the exhibition go to the Arts Fund to relieve distress among authors, actors, musicians, and painters, of which fund Miss Elizabeth Asquith is chairman......"

"......In his portrait drawings Mr. Sargent is apparently only embarrassed by extreme prettiness in his subject. His Lady Diana Manners is his least successful work, while the dark flame of Mme Rejane's eyes of genius has literally inspired him. His Earl Spencer rises superior to his renowned high collar in a way that puts Mr Orpen's portrait of the earl at that Academy in the shade. Not beauty but character is the trait to which Mr Sargent's hand infallibly responds. The Sargent gallery in this exhibition gives some impression of the amount of genius and character that is present in London of this generation....."

"A feature of the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in the Grafton Galleries is a loan collection of portrait drawings in chalk by Mr John S. Sargent. They are 46 in number, and represent casual work done at intervals during the last twenty years.  Not even Mr Sargent is seen to the best advantage under such a test. His subjects are mostly stylish young women, and whether it is due to their sameness or to the limitations of the medium the effect is almost as monotonous as that produced by Lely's beauties at Hampton Court, and only slightly less insipid. Here and there, with a striking sitter like the late Earl of Wemyss, Christian de Wet, George Meredith, or Lord Cromer, the result is happier......."

".....Mr W B E Ranken sends a large portrait study "The Blue Vase,"  painted with great vigour and decorative sense."

"The great feature of this exhibition is the loan collection of Mr Sargent's portrait drawings in the Octagon Room. They form a supremely interesting exhibition within the exhibition........"

".....To say that these brilliant spontaneous drawings are all on the same level of mastery would be a misleading assertion. Even Mr Sargent has his weak moments. No one can rival him in rendering the fleeting expression of a moment -- a smile quivering on the lip, a question put into a raised eyebrow, a disdainful twitch of the corner of the mouth. But when he sets himself the task of recording immobile prettiness he descends at times to mere commonplace. There are drawings in this exhibition that recall Lawrence at his worst and most mechanical. The portraits of Lady Marjorie Manners and Lady Diana Manners are conventional to a degree and wholly lacking in expression. On the other hand, the heads of Mme. Rejane, the Countess of Rocksavage and the Earl of Spencer are drawings of supreme merit."

"............Much more of the pretty-pretty school, of course-the show at the Grafton, where there are some of Sargent's charcoal portrait drawings and other fashionable portraitists, Lavery and Shannon and Ranken and Fiddes Watts, have sent their fashionable sitters-in aid of the Red Cross."

"A few of the 46 charcoal portrait drawings Mr. Sargent contributes to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters' exhibition at the Grafton Galleries certainly sprang from his own initiative-the "George Meredith" and the "Christian de Wet," for example. Some are studies for famous portraits-the "Carmencita" and the "Earl of Wemyss" - but most of these alert accomplished drawings are, I imagine, the offspring of Importunity and Gallant Genius.

Mr Sargent refuses to be bored by painting portraits, but as he cannot always be saying no to charming ladies, he comforts them by dashing off these portrait drawings. Some are charming-the "Countess of Rocksavage" and the Marchioness of Anglesey" are two of the most alluring, and searching is the characterisation of "Dr. Ethel Smyth" "Earl Spencer" and "Madame Rejane"- but many of the 46 seem quite uninspired. They lack the patience and the inward peering of the best Primitive drawings; they lack the summary of simplicity, and the wonder-look of exploration of Augustus John's portrait drawings. Yet no other artist could emerge from the ordeal so well as John Sargent."

"The portrait drawings of Mr J.S. Sargent at the Grafton Galleries have a double attraction. Their value is historical as well as artistic. Future admirers will seek to distil from the charcoal the spirit of our age. They form a record, unfortunately by no means complete, of some of the men and women who are struggling through a tempest unparalleled in the history of the world. To study ourselves is possibly a morbid occupation. On the other hand, it is good to realise one's own importance in the scheme of the universe. We of to-day, in the estimation of posterity, are preparing to rank as extremely fascinating subjects of study...."

"......No doubt the Royal Portrait Painters would be the first to admit that their membership does not include an equal to any of the brilliant masters of the older school of English portrait painting. Their can be but one possible exception. Mr Sargent is assuredly pre-eminent. At the Grafton Galleries Miss Elizabeth Asquith has brought together a collection of those portrait drawings which Mr Sargent has been making during the past dozen years. Most of his subjects are well known in English society. A few are famous in the arts. We wish that the collection were more representative of English life at the present day, for these drawings are very valuable as documents. Artistically, they carry on the tradition of the masters. The most exclusive connoisseur could not deny admission to his cabinet of these exquisite impressions in charcoal.

For impressions they are - impressions of personality and of outstanding character. In his interpretation of good looks Mr Sargent is curiously unequal. He can draw a good-looking man far more satisfactorily than a good-looking woman. The sketches of "Lady Marjorie Manners (Marchioness of Anglesey)" of "Lady Diana Manners" of "The Marchioness of Crewe" are hardly just. You do not flatter a woman by drawing her like a doll. With older women Mr Sargent is happier and with an ugly woman he is triumphantly successful. The portrait of "Madame Rejane" is a masterpiece - the tremulous curl of the lips, the slightly cynical glance of the eyes, all the battery of the professional comedienne. Of course, every woman is a comedienne when it suits her (as every man is prone to an unconscious tragedy bordering on the comic) but in this fine drawing Mr Sargent discards the amateur inexperience of the salon and depicts the atmosphere of make-believe and coulisses.

With the men the artist is uniformly at his best. In the sketches of Sir W B Richmond, of the late Earl of Wemyss, of Christian de Wet and Father Nicolay Velimirovitch it is clear that he has sought to express strong character. The "Earl Spencer" may be compared with Mr Orpen's portrait in the Royal Academy. Here Mr Sargent has endeavoured to capture individuality rather than character. The collection is bound to draw the town. But in one respect the little octagon room is disappointing. The walls do not include portraits of some men of today we should like to see handed down for the benefit of the future by so clever a skill.

Had Mr Sargent lived in an earlier century, an artist obedient to the will of his sovereign like Velazquez to Philip IV or Titian to Charles V, his duty would have been clear. A room for studio set aside in St James's Palace, the artist would have been amicably interned, and every man who had rendered service to the state would have stood before his easel or passed through the ordeal of his charcoal stump. However, the mightiest of modern Emperors cannot command the pencil of this most independent cosmopolitan. Perhaps when Mr Sargent returns from America he will paint Sir David Beatty as Velazquez painted Pulido Pareji....."

[Editor's Note - Sargent drew a mug of The Earl Beatty two years later in 1919]
 

Burlington Magazine     July 1916
Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Grafton Galleries

 
"The leading feature of this exhibition at the Grafton Galleries is a collection of portrait drawings by Mr Sargent, arranged by Miss Elizabeth Asquith, the versatile and accomplished "chairmen" of the Arts Fund, to whose excellent work the gate-money is devoted. These elaborate charcoal drawings have come to be regarded in recent years as a great artist's conscientious objection clause to further portrait painting in oils. Undoubtedly some of them have seemed at times the P.P.C. cards of a wearied or let us say bored craftsman unsheathing the pencil in the cause of friendship more than of art or conviction. But the examples secured by Miss Elizabeth Asquith evince the artist's genuine interest in his sitters. In many of them the spectator will share his curiosity and delight in the character and expression of the faces. The experience can be realized more particularly before the Lady Ritchie (21) and the famous Christian de Wet (28) (an acquisition envied by public galleries). Here, too, are Master Anthony Asquith, Lady Diana Manners, Miss Viola Tree, Mrs Charles Hunter, and Master George Lewis, all as fascinating and radiant on paper as they must be in real life. Of great beauty are the drawings of the Guy Benson (18) and Capt. Rex Benson (20). The least satisfactory is that of George Meredith (23). Some of the writer's obscurities seem to have affected the artist's medium. The Sir William Richmond (34) is among one of several and jostling masterpieces. It may be noted that the two charming heads of the Misses Barnard (37) as children are studies for Carnation, Lily, Rose at the Tate - a piece of information omitted by the catalogue."

"We went to the Grafton Gallery to see the exhibition of Sargent drawings. It's a real nightmare to see so many of one's friends so blatantly depicted staring at one from four walls - I think the one of me presents the foulest woman I have ever seen." --  Lady Cynthia Charteris

Notes

Special thanks to Wendy & Gordon Hawksley, of Sheffield, England, friends of the JSS Gallery, for sending me the reviews on this exhibition which they remarkably found in the private pappers of William Bruce Ellis Ranken. They tell me about this wonderful discovery in their update of 16 Feb 2003.

• See the year in review 1915-1916

Lord Cromer "mug" (n/a)
Sargent would paint in oil Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer in 1902

Mme Rejane "mug"

I haven't found Sargent's drawing but Boldini painted her in 1885

 

3)

Study for Carmencita
It's difficult to say which drawing was sent, See Sargent's oil of Carmencita

4)

Master George Lewis
I haven't found the drawing but Sargent did an oil of Sir George Lewis  (would that be his father?)

Guy Benson and Capt. Rex Benson are probably related to Robert Henry Benson

6)

Lady Marjorie Manner (Marchioness of Anglesey)

Christiaan de Wet is in the possesion of the War Museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

From: Matt Davies
Freind of the JSS Gallery
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003

Lady Marjorie Manners, Marchioness of Anglesey, was the sister of Lady Diana Manners. Marjorie (as her title implies) married the Marquess of Anglesey. Diana [her sister] married (in 1919) Duff Cooper, an author and diplomat - you can probably find much info about him on the Internet. They had a third sister, Violet, whose husband (I think his name was Hugo) was the son of Mary, Lady Elcho (depicted by Sargent in 1899's 'The Wyndham Sisters'). Mary [the mother-in-law to third sister Violet] was one of The Souls. The mother of Diana, Marjorie, and Violet ('Letty') Manners was Violet, Marchioness of Granby when she was in the Souls, and later became the Duchess of Rutland when her husband succeeded his own father as Duke of Rutland. She was an accomplished artist herself [we're talking about the mother] - her portraits of many of the Souls and other high society figures can be found in biographies/autobiographies some of the aristocrats written in the 1920s and 1930s. I'll scan some for you some time and send them.