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Watercolor on paper Size (Click
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From: Tony Wearing tony. wea ring@btinternet.com Date: Apr 14, 2006 I came across a picture of the Borghese Balustrade by John Singer Sargent in a book about Cliveden, home of William Waldorf Astor. The book is Cliveden: The Place and the People by James Crathorne Published by Collins & Brown Limited 1995. The picture appears on p136 and is credited to the Ormond Family but not dated. The label next to the picture says: The Borghese Balustrade, a watercolour by John Singer Sargent. The seventeenth-century Balustrade was bought by William Waldorf in 1896 from the Villa Borghese in Rome and positioned on the Parterre. It was one of his most notable purchases. I have just done a search for borghese and singer and found a website for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, with a picture of Borghese Gardens in Rome, by John Singer Sargent Regards, Tony From Natasha Clivedan was the home of William Waldorf Astor, as you say, but was later also the home of his son and daughter-in-law Lady Astor whom was painted by Sargent in 1909  Lady Astor 1909 Apparently John painted this watercolor on a visit to Clivedan which should probably date the work 1909 or after. The fact that Sargent had been to the Borghese Gardens himself (although when exactly in either case is not clear) might have been a motivation for his interest in the composition -- but I'm just guessing |