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Just
Blotted
12/19/2005
Santa Came Early
12/19/2005
For those
that were selling works by Sargent at one of two big auction houses,
Christmas came early this year with some astronomical numbers being
posted when the hammer fell. Your reporter was there, kind of -- at
least following it from my desk. Most of these had never been seen on
the internet before. Here are the
results:
A pretty
substantial collection (by
Sir Alec Martin) was sold
through Christies, and within it was the last known Study
of Rosina Ferrara. -- an image that had not appeared on the
internet
before. Always a huge favorite model for the fans of Sargent's art,
this Rosina sold predictably well over estimate at $688,000. The
next two paintings, also from Alec Martin's collection, are watercolors
that I had never seen before Mediterranean
Landscape, 1879?,
brought $204,000 USD; and The White
House, possibly also 1879?, brought $78,000 USD.
As an aside, I tentatively dated these
early in the chronology of his life (they were undated), but they look
almost post 1900, I
would be interested to hear your thoughts on dating of these paintings.
At
Sotheby's we saw a resale of a drawing that sold in 1994 -- Sketch
After "El Jaleo" c. 1879-82. It had formally sold for $76,750
and was resold in November this year for $228,000 USD. Those of you who
are left-brain art lovers, I ran a culculation and it turns out to be a
10.4% Annualized Return. Fortress,
Roads and Rocks was offered but unsold; Purtud: Fir Trees and
Snow Mountains, 1908, a small little study in watercolor
wash fetched $51,000 USD; The Rialto, c.
1909, another resale from 1997 this time got $3,712,000
USD -- a 6.75% Annualized Return.
In the Mug category, we had a distinguished
Italian soprano Blanche
Marchesi c. 1910, selling well over estimate at $132,000 USD;
and finally an oil study of Madame
Belleroche, 1884
going for $120,000 UDS.
Comming
Soon
Philip Resheph
12/19/2005
Just a short note to let you know of a forthcoming
exhibition in the National Gallery in London "Americans in
Paris" which will
include works by JSS (Madame X seems to be coming over
once again)! Not sure if the exhibition is on in the States as well - I
can't find it elsewhere on Google.
Should be fun
Happy Christmas
Jonathan Whitney
12/19/2005
Here
is one more also from my book....he was quite a dashing young man (Go
to)
Jonathan Whitney
11/9/2005
I
wanted to share a photograph of Lt. The Hon. Edward Wyndham Tennant
with the JSS site. I first discovered "Bim" while perusing JSS so I
decided to research him.
Thanks to Ebay I was able to purchase a copy of Lady Glenconner's
poignant memoir from 1918 which has some striking photogravures of
him....like this one. (Go
to)
I appreciate all of your hard work and the JSS site is the best
resource for those interested in Mr. Sargent's art.
Stephanie
11/7/2005
Todd
10/25/2005
I am a huge Biltmore
Estate History junkie
and have in my collection a set of cards published in 1994 that I
purchased at Biltmore House and in the collection of cards (greeting
type) is one of this wonderful painting of Virginia Bacon [Mrs. Walter Bacon]. It is my favorite piece in
the house.
If your interested in joining fellow Biltmore History and Collector
fans join us at our growing club that I have started.
We try to discuss the history into a much more indepth way than your
Biltmore guide book will. (Go
to)
After
JSS
10/25/2005
The Shrimp Gatherers after John
Singer Sargent by V. D.
Stanley-Alder (Continental School) c.1919 (Go
to)
Boldini's
Albertini
(Go
to)
Michael Roller
10/19/2005
I'm forwarding to you something about George Roller put out by a
Local Historical Society. (Go
to)Valerie
Colston
(www.artmuseums.com)
10/13/2005
[President
Bill Clinton about de Laszlo's painting:]
"Theodore
Roosevelt, who was known as our
most macho, bully, self-confident president, you look at that picture
and you see here's a human being who's scared to death and not sure
it's going to come out all right. And he does the right thing, anyway.
That's what I saw in that picture." (Go
to)
Francesca Miller
10/13/2005
I have
some interesting news for you. I did some looking around on the
internet and I found a 1st addition autobiography on Ethel Barrymore
which I purchased for you. It finally came in the mail and I scanned
the image of Ethel from the dust jacket. The book is old and mildewed
but it's a first edition so please enjoy it. (Go
to)
Other
Artists
9/30/2005
A topic
that is near and dear to me is the American Renaissance and the City
Beautiful movement -- one of those artist that fits neatly into this is
Phineas Paist (Go
to)
Paintings
added
Earlier
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What's New Index (current)
Now Showing
Impressionism Abroad:
Boston and French Painting
Norton
Museum, Palm Beach, FL
19
November 2005 -- 5 March 2006
Explores the influence of the French Impressionist painters
on Boston’s artists and collectors during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. The exhibition, drawn largely from the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston (USA), will tell the story of Boston’s early
recognition of and enthusiasm for the work of the Impressionists and
the French Barbizon School, in particular their landscape painting.
Work by American artists such as William Morris Hunt, John Singer
Sargent and Childe Hassam will be placed alongside paintings by Claude
Monet and Camille Pissarro as well as earlier French painters such as
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Jean-François Millet, who they
also admired and emulated. (Go to)
Sarah
Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama
The Jewish Museum, New
York
December 02, 2005 - April 02, 2006 (Go to)
An aptly titled
exhibition for a remarkable woman. See Srah Bernhardt at the JSS
Gallery
(Go to)
Ode to
Sargent
Two works I
thought you might find interesting:
Cecil
Beaton's The Wyndham Sisters (go to)
Noman
Rockwell's Picasso vs Sargent (go to)
Martin
Kilner
9/27/2005
Just thought this looked intresting, John
Young Hunter, a friend of Sargent from the Royal Academy Days, Magic! (go to) here
is one on ebay today (go
to) and here, a georgeous sunset
painting!...and portraits (go to).
Francesca Miller
9/27/2005
Here is a
lovely photo of the older but still handsome JSS. (Go
to)
And how
about this
painting called Incensing the Veil
which was inscribed to Dr Pozzi. (Go
to)
Mike Pieczonka
10/4/2005
I had a sec today and think I've got what you want...
[Madame X with her dress strap off] It's incredible what a
different statement the painting becomes when you change just that one
strap!! It's no wonder he was chased out of Paris really! (Go
to)
The
Architect's Ghost
The Boston Globe
William Morgan
9/11/2005
Guy Lowell, one of
the quintessential gentleman
architects of the American Renaissance, is best known for his 1907
design of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts on Huntington Avenue. But the
well-connected Lowell was also the designer of choice for elegant
country estates around Boston and on New York's Long Island. (Go to)
Artist's
children chronicle his work at Weir Farm
Ryan Jockers
The Advocate
September 22, 2005
(. . .) Sperry Andrews and his wife, Doris, who died two years ago,
are credited with saving [J. Alden Weir's] farm from development and
getting it designated a national park 1990. [John
Singer Sargent visted
Weir there around 1919.] It is the only
national park in Connecticut, and the only one in the nation dedicated
to American painters.
The artist J. Alden Weir bought the farm, then 153 acres, in 1882. For
30 years, it inspired him and his Impressionist friends, a group
including Childe Hassam and Albert Pinkham Ryder. (Go to)
Betty
Goldman
9/30/2005
I did read, from what I thought
was an accurate source,
that the father [of Harry Elkins Widener of Harvards Memorial Library]
also died on the Titanic. I have found two
websites, the first of which is not very clear regarding the fate of
the father (Go
to)
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Natasha's
Blog
9/30/2005
The most important thing
that's happened since the last
addition of the co-maniacs is the continuing improvement of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston website. These guys just continue to blow
me away with what they are doing.
If
you haven't noticed recently they
have gotten much better and larger images of their artwork
on line. The effect of this, of course, is quite profound in
understanding just how amazing John Singer Sargent's art really is.
The
images of his watercolors at Carrara, for
example, are
larger and more detailed. Others have been vastly improved such as Tents, Bailleul. The images of
his oils such as the Boit Daughters show more of the
difference in the darker shading. Along with perennial favorites such
as Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and
Her Daughter Rachel have all been vastly improved.
Studies
from both mural projects continue to be added to their database with
images of such a
size and clarity that it takes your breath away with appreciation -- an
understanding that these are quite amazing pieces of art in and of
them self. You can look at something as simple as hands
for Sorrowful Mysteries or ponder the force of Falling
Figure of Gog and Magog, they all just keep coming.
The MFA
is at the top of my most favorite people!
9/27/2005
As I stand
here at the stove cooking up things for you, it is close to midnight
and I haven't had dinner myself -- I haven't even had lunch. I have
been working frantically trying to get this new addition published. And
I got to tell you -- I am not good at meeting deadlines.
A lot has
happened over the summer but I'll have to come back to that subject a
little bit later. In the mean time I want to let you know about two new
children of mine -- that is in the sense of virtual children. Actually
I am the godparent since I didn't have anything to do with them
directly, but in both cases I am quite fond of the parents whom have
brought these new children into this virtual world. Both are still very
young and have a lot of growing to do, but I am never the less as proud
of them as any godparent would be. There is a lot of promiss in both
of them.
The first
of these is given the name of www.williamranken.org and he is the child of
two of my dear friends Wendy & Gordon Hawksley. In
their excitement at birth they wrote me and said "We have just put a
few nominal pages on . . . The real website is still under
construction as we are still researching family records."
Many of you
will remember my small modest chapter to Rankin which is here (go
to)
The second
of my godchildren is called www.LaGandara.fr
and his
mother is my good friend Xavier Mathieu who lives in France. In
fact the announcement just arrived today - here, let me read it to you:
"For years,
the Antonio de La Gandara family has been active in promoting his
memory and we finally have a website dedicated to him."
Most of you
will remember my modest page on La Gandara which is here (Go
to).
I
could not be more proud of each parent! And just like a
godparent, I look forward to the rewards of playing with their children
and not having to worry about raising them or changing their
diapers!
Matt
Davies
9/27/2005
As you
can tell, I'm on an art kick again. I know along some of the Sargent
works you have posted photographs of the sitters as additional
documentation. With that in mind:
This photograph appeared in a 1904 issue of
Munsey's Magazine and is
captioned "MIss Pauline Astor, the only daughter of William Waldorf
Astor, the American millionaire who renounced the United States to
become a British subject. (Go
to)
Attached is a photograph of the Countess
and Maynard that appeared in a
1906 issue of Munsey's Magazine (Go
to)
A lady to whom we
keep returning . .
. Lady Decies. Attached is a photograph of her from an issue of
Munsey's Magazine in 1899, when she was Mrs. John Vinton Dahlgren. (Go
to)
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The
House
that Booth Built (Historic
house has own ghost, spicy aroma
Cincinnati Post
Nick
Clooney
10/3/2005
(.
. . ) When the affable Tom Dillon, who oversees [The
Players] club, took Nina and me to
see Booth's apartment, there was a clear understanding that the spirit
of Edwin Booth inhabits every room. One of the club members told me,
with a straight face, that she had "seen Mr. Booth's shade, and a very
benign and supportive ghost he was." She was very convincing, but then,
she was an actress and being convincing is her job. (Go
to)
Matt
Davies
9/27/2005
Attached
is the text a 1903 article on
Sargent, Charles H. Caffin, “John S. Sargent: The Greatest Contemporary
Portrait Painter,” World’s Work, November 1903, p. 4099-4118. The
article contained an additional piece entitled, "A Personal Sketch of
Mr. Sargent, By Evan Mills." This last piece is interesting in its
analysis of Sargent. However, the author must not have done his
homework - he mentions that Sargent had married! (Go
to)
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Matt
Davies
9/27/2005
Found a
portrait I thought you may be interested in adding to your site: Sir
John Lavery's Portrait of Mrs. Robert Finnie McEwen of Marchmont and
Bardrochat, with Her Daughters Katherine and Elizabeth (1907). The
portrait is of interest not only because it makes an excellent addition
to the Lavery section of your site, but also because you already have
de Laszlo's portrait of Mrs. McEwen on the site as well (it was
recently auctioned off by Christie's). (Go
to)
Patricia
Duggleby
10/4/2005
My
great-grandmother,
Margaret O'Regan, was a companion to John Singer Sargent's mother in
London for the year before she died. After Mrs. Sargent died, she
stayed on as companion to Emily. She remembered modelling for Sargent
for two paintings. (Go
to)
As
of Today
10/8/2005
The JSS
Gallery contains 3,352 pages.
Who would
have imagined
it would have grown this big? Certainly not I.
Francesca
Miller
10/8/2005
A
little off topic, but this is so cool! Make sure your sound
is on! The subject is "How to Carve a pumpkin and Happy
Halloween" (Go
to)
(return
to top)
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