The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant
John Singer Sargent , 1899
292.1 × 213.7 cm
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York City
The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant is a group portrait of John Singer Sargent painted in oil on linen forest . The painting, which is 292.1 cm high and 213.7 cm wide, shows the daughters of the wealthy aristocrat Percy Scawen Wyndham . He commissioned the painting from Sargent, who portrayed the Wyndham sisters in the Victorian living room of their London home in 1899 . The painting has belonged to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1927 .
Painting title
The Metropolitan Museum of Art refers to the painting in publications and on its website as The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant . There are various titles that differ from this. When the painting was first presented to the public in May 1900 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, it was titled Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant . In 1911 the painting was shown at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and on the occasion referred to as the Portrait Group of Lady Elcho and her Sisters . Richard Ormond , grandson of Sargent's sister Violet Sargent Ormond and author of several Sargent books, alternatively gave Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane and Mrs. Tennant or The Wyndham Sisters as image titles .
The family of those portrayed
The Wyndham family is part of the British aristocracy. In the past, its male members often held high positions in politics or the army. The painting The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant was commissioned by Percy Scawen Wyndham (1835–1869), the father of those portrayed. He was the third son of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield (1787-1911) and sat for the Conservative Party as a member of the British lower house, the House of Commons . His wife Madeline also came from the British aristocracy and was the daughter of Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet . The Wyndhams' marriage resulted in a total of five children. The three daughters depicted in the painting were already married when the painting was created, as evidenced by the surnames in the picture titles. The eldest daughter Mary Constance Wyndham (1862-1937) was married to Hugo Charteris , who initially bore the title Lord Elcho and later inherited the title 11th Earl of Wemyss and 7th Earl of March . He was also a member of the lower house. The second oldest daughter Madeline Pamela Constance Wyndham (1869-1941) had married Charles Adeane, who held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from 1915 to 1943 . The third daughter was Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Wyndham (1871-1928), first marriage to the House of Commons Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner , married in the second marriage to Foreign Secretary Edward Gray, 1st Viscount Gray of Fallodon . The brothers of those portrayed were the MP and later Minister of Ireland George Wyndham (1863-1913) and the Army member Guy Wyndham (1865-1941), who had served in Africa for several years before becoming a military attaché at the British legation in Saint Petersburg . The three daughters were praised for their beauty and all siblings were considered to be witty conversationalists. They belonged to the intellectual group The Souls , at whose meetings, for example, the future British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour took part. In addition, Pamela and George Wyndham were also literary active.
Image description
Sargent shows a group portrait in an interior in the painting The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant . The sisters sit on a sofa facing the viewer. Madeline Adeane has taken her seat on the left. Her body is turned to the center of the picture and her gaze is directed to the side. Your left hand extends to the backrest while your right hand is placed on your lap. Sitting next to her with crossed legs is Pamela Tennant, the only one of the sisters who looks directly at the viewer. She has laid her outstretched left arm on the side of the sofa, the right arm is bent and her closed hand is stretching upwards. The sister Mary Constance, Lady Elcho, has sat down on the side of the sofa behind her. She looks over her sisters forward to the left. Your hands are interlocked behind your back. All three sisters wear light-colored dresses that change between white and various natural colors ; You can also see blue in Mrs. Tennant's dress. The dresses extend to the shoes, the sleeves are missing or are made of transparent fabric, the necklines allow a clear view of the neck. Occasionally bows and ruffles can be seen on the dress; the shiny surface of the fabric suggests silk or a similar precious material. The sisters wear jewelry such as pearl necklaces, a bracelet or a ring.
The sofa - possibly also a blanket thrown over the sofa - is colored in a similar way to the clothes of the sitter. This results in a light colored area that blurs into one another and takes up almost the entire area of the picture below. On the left side this area is limited by a green cushion, on the right side flower arrangements with large white flowers and green leaves protrude into the picture.
The composition of the three Wyndham sisters contrasts with the dark background. In the style of the old masters , Sargent has sketched the living room in the family home of the Wyndham family in London's Belgrave Square with its Victorian interior. While the people in the foreground appear in full light, there is only a light in the background on the right-hand side. On the greenish wall, the outlines of three paintings are more or less recognizable. A large portrait in portrait format is flanked by a small oval picture on each side. While the motif is not recognizable in the oval picture on the left, a small portrait can be made out of focus on the right, but its identity remains unclear. However, the large painting in the middle is essential for the overall composition. This is the portrait of the mother of the Wyndham sister executed by George Frederick Watts in 1877 (private collection). Her portrait represents the connecting point of reference of the three sisters and also illustrates the painterly tradition that Sargent ties in with his group portrait. The painting is signed, but not dated, 'John S. Sargent' lower right.
The creation of the painting - models and execution
When John Singer Sargent was commissioned to paint The Wyndham Sisters in the late 1890s , he was one of the most sought-after portrait painters of the upper class in the United States and the United Kingdom . His success began as early as the 1880s, for example with the large-format painting The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit ( Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ) created in 1882 . The picture shows, like the group portrait of the Wyndhams, the daughters of a wealthy family in an interior. This work from his early work clearly shows the influence of the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez , whose main work Las Meninas ( Prado , Madrid) Sargent had copied in 1879. In the portrait of the Boit daughters, as well as later in the group portrait of the Wyndham sisters, Sargent portrayed female figures in white clothing against a dark background, just like his role model Velázquez. The paintings on the back wall in Las Meninas can also be found in Sargent's Wyndham picture.
Numerous models are conceivable for the motif of the three sisters. An example in English painting is The Three Eldest Princesses, Charlotte, Princess Royal, Augusta and Elizabeth ( Royal Collection , London) by Thomas Gainsborough , who set the motif in a landscape, but brought standing and seated figures close together, as implemented later by Sargent. Even before the Wyndham picture, he had created a portrait of three sisters in 1884 with The Misses Vickers ( Weston Park Museum , Sheffield). This group portrait was also not made in the studio, but in the house of the family depicted. In contrast to the later Wyndham portrait, the picture of the Vickers sisters is not a monumental painting, but a comparatively small-format picture. In 1896, however, Sargent portrayed Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children ( Tate Britain , London) in life size . In this group portrait, the seated Adele Meyer is clearly the central figure, while her children, placed behind the seating furniture, take up less space. This contrasts with the composition of the Wyndham sisters, who are presented in a balanced arrangement.
John Singer Sargent:
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit , 1882
Diego Velázquez:
Las Meninas , 1656
Thomas Gainsborough:
The Three Eldest Princesses, Charlotte, Princess Royal, Augusta and Elizabeth , 1784
John Singer Sargent:
The Misses Vickers , 1884
John Singer Sargent:
Mrs Carl Meyer and her Children , 1896
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Sargent had known the Wyndham family since 1886 and was a regular guest at their Stanway House residence in Gloucestershire . Evan Charteris, a brother-in-law of Mary Constance, Lady Elcho, later wrote the first comprehensive biography on Sargent. After the three daughters were already married and no longer lived with their parents, their father Percy Wyndham commissioned Sargent in late 1898 for a group portrait for which the sum of 2000 pounds sterling was agreed. Sargent confirmed the order in a letter:
“I have received your letter, and assure you that I am looking forward with the greatest interest to painting your three daughters, and that I shall allow nothing to interfere with it on my part. Will you please let me know when you arrive [in London] in March or, at any rate when my three sitters witt get together. "
“I have received your letter and I can assure you that I am very much looking forward to painting your three daughters and that nothing will stand in the way of my part. Please let me know when you will be arriving [in London] in March or anytime the three to be portrayed meet. (analogous translation) "
Work on the painting did not take place in Sargent's studio, as usual, but in the London home of Percy and Madeline Wyndham at 44 Belgrave Square. Various family members reported on the creation of the picture in their notes. Madeline Wyndham recorded the start of work on February 15, 1899. On February 16, the author Wilfrid Scawen Blunt noted: “Mary, Pamela and Madeline are sitting for there portraits in a group to Sargent. It is being painted in the drawing room. In the background there will be their mother's portrait by Watts. ”(In a sense: Mary, Pamela and Madeline are sitting at Sargent's for their group portrait. It is created in the living room. In the background there will be the portrait of their mother by Watts. )
As a preparatory work for the painting, three sheets of pencil sketches have been preserved (all Fogg Art Museum , Cambridge (Massachusetts)). While a very vague arrangement of the people is indicated on one sheet, two further pencil drawings show the outlines of the sisters and the portrait of the mother towering behind them. Another sheet shows one of the daughters as a half-length figure. Above all, the two drawings with the outlines of the daughters give a first impression of the later light-dark division in the painting. The art historian Doreen Bolger Burke referred to the frieze-like depiction of the Wyndham sisters, which are lined up in close succession from the left to the right edge of the picture. Sargent had implemented fresco-like representations since 1890, especially in his wall paintings in the Boston Public Library . This highly acclaimed work on the subject of Judaism and Christianity also contributed to his reputation as a specialist in large-format work.
John Singer Sargent: Composition study for The Wyndham Sisters , 1899
John Singer Sargent: Composition study for The Wyndham Sisters , 1899
John Singer Sargent: Figure Study for The Wyndham Sisters , 1899
John Singer Sargent: Excerpt from The Triumph of Religion , 1890-1919
In her notes, the portrayed Lady Elcho described the progress of work on the painting. She explains that her parents and brother George were sometimes present at the portrait sessions and what clothes she and her sisters wore. Usually there were three portrait sessions a week, but there were always interruptions. Sometimes Sargent's mother fell ill and the appointment with the Wyndhams was canceled. Another time, Sister Pamela fell ill and her place was temporarily taken by cousin Dorothy Carleton. The sessions lasted essentially until June 1899, in February 1900 there was a subsequent correction to Pamela Tennant's nose. On February 13, 1900, she wrote to her father: “My sittings are now over” ( The sessions are now over ).
reception
The response to Sargent's painting of the Wyndham Sisters has been extremely positive. The author Wilfrid Scawen Blunt , a cousin of the client Percy Wyndham, described the painting as "possibly the best picture of Sargent". A critic of the London-based newspaper Saturday Review praised the "large harmony" ( great harmony ) of the painting. In the newspaper The Times , a critic wrote: "The greatest picture which has appeared for many years on the walls of the Royal Academy" (meaning: the greatest picture that has been shown on the walls of the Royal Academy for many years ). Praise also came from damilgen Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. , Who (the painting as "The Three Graces" The Three Graces ) called.
Despite the good reviews of his contemporaries, Sargent's painting of the Wyndham Sisters remained without significant response from other painters. His artistic style was still popular with his clients after 1900, but not formative for other artists. While new art movements such as Fauvism , Cubism or Expressionism emerged a few years later , Sargent's works looked old-fashioned in comparison. It was only after the Second World War that the photographer Cecil Beaton took up the composition of Sargent's paintings of the Wyndham sisters again. In 1947 he portrayed Lady Ursula Eva Pratt (1921–1993), Marjorie Mollie Gascoyne-Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury (1922–2016) and Pamela Wyndham, Lady Egremont (1925–2013). They were born sisters of the Wyndham-Quin family and were distant relatives of the Wyndham sisters portrayed in the Sargent painting. Like Sargent, Beaton draped the three sisters around a sofa in a stately drawing room. The arrangement of the three women, their light-colored clothes, a wall with paintings in the dark background - Beaton essentially followed Sargent's original composition. He not only tied in with a painterly model in photography, but also tried, like Sargent, to stage the sisters who belonged to the upper class as advantageously as possible.
Provenance
The painting was initially owned by the client Percy Wyndham, who had the painting hanging in his country estate, Clouds House in Wiltshire. After his death in 1911, his son George Wyndham inherited the painting and kept it until his death in 1913. The next owner of the painting was his nephew Guy Richard Charles Wyndham. He sold the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1927 through the London branch of the art dealer M Knoedler & Co. The museum acquired the picture with donations from the Wolfe Fund for the Catharine Lorilland Wolfe Collection .
literature
- Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs (ed.): American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3: A catalog of works by artists born between 1846 and 1864 . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1980, ISBN 0-87099-244-9 .
- Richard Ormond , Elaine Kilmurray: John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s . Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. 2002, ISBN 0-300-09067-6 .
- Margaretta Matilda Salinger: Masterpieces of American painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1986, ISBN 0-87099-472-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The title The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant can be found in Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 253; in Margaretta Matilda Salinger: Masterpieces of American painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1996, p. 152 and on the museum's website
- ↑ a b c d Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 256.
- ↑ Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray: John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s. 2002, p. 155.
- ^ A b c Margaretta Matilda Salinger: Masterpieces of American painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1996, p. 152.
- ↑ a b Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray: `` John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s ''. 2002, p. 155.
- ↑ a b c d e f Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray: `` John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s ''. 2002, p. 156.
- ^ Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 253.
- ↑ Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray: John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s. 2002, p. 156.
- ↑ a b c Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 254.
- ↑ Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray: John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s. 2002, p. 158.
- ↑ Described with “large harmony” in the Saturday Review , No. 89 published in May 1900. Reproduced in Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 254.
- ^ The Critique in The Times appeared on May 5, 1900, p. 3. Reproduced in Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 256.
- ↑ The expression of the Prince of Wales is taken from Doreen Bolger Burke, Kathleen Luhrs: American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Volume 3, 1980, p. 256.
- ^ Photograph of the Wyndham-Quin sisters by Cecil Beaton at www.jssgallery.org
- ↑ Pamela, Dowager Lady Egremont . In: The Times. 20th December 2013.
- ^ Greg Fallis: Cecil Beaton at www.utata.org
- ↑ Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray: John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s. 2002, p. 191.