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Shown from the knees up, a young woman with pale skin and flushed cheeks looks at us, wearing a long, shimmering white dress partially draped with powder-blue fabric in this vertical portrait painting. The brushstrokes are loose in her clothing but blended in her face, giving the portrait a soft, almost blurred look. Her body is angled to our right but she turns to look directly at us. Her dark, chestnut-brown hair is piled loosely on her head. A dark form could be a feather or small hat set to one side. Her eyes may be two different colors; her right eye is grayish-blue and her right eye looks almost green. She has a straight, snub nose, and her fuchsia-pink lips are parted in a small smile. There is a faint suggestion of a cleft in her pointed chin. Her white dress has a low, scooped neck and a tight-fitting bodice over a flaring skirt. Powder blue-fabric drapes over her right shoulder, closer to us, and might be pinned or pulled through a gold ring there. The blue fabric appears on her left hip, farther from us, suggesting it may wrap across her back. The sheen of the white dress and blue fabric suggests silk. The artist signed the work in cursive letters in the upper left, “John S. Sargent,” and dated it in the upper right, “1902.”

John Singer Sargent

Mary Crowninshield Endicott Chamberlain (Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain), 1902

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 150.5 × 83.8 cm (59 1/4 × 33 in.)

framed: 163.51 × 96.52 × 8.89 cm (64 3/8 × 38 × 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the sitter, Mary Endicott Chamberlain Carnegie

Accession Number

1958.2.1

Artists / Makers

John Singer Sargent (artist) American, 1856 - 1925

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

upper left: John S. Sargent; upper right: 1902

Provenance

The sitter's mother, Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott [1833-1927]; bequeathed 1927 to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with life interest to her daughter (the sitter); released 1952 by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to the sitter, Mary Endicott Chamberlain Carnegie [1864-1957]; gift 1958 to NGA.

Associated Names

Carnegie, William H., Mrs.
Endicott, William Crowninshield, Mrs.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Exhibition History

1902: Second Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, The Copley Society of Boston, Copley Hall, Boston, 1902, no. 121.

1903: 135th Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1903, no. 166.

1916: Exhibition of Paintings by John Singer Sargent, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1916, no cat.

1924: Retrospective Exhibition of Important Works of John Singer Sargent, Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1924, no. 13.

1925: Memorial Exhibition of the Work of John Singer Sargent, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1925, no. 76, repro.

1970: Two Centuries of American Portraits, University of Kentucky Art Gallery, Lexington; Paducah Art Gallery, Kentucky; J.B. Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, Kentucky, 1970, no cat.

1976: Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1976-1977.

1982: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 1982-1985.

1985: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Joe M. Rodgers, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 1985-1989.

1989: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Walter Curley, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, 1989-1993.

1993: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Pamela Harriman, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, 1993-

2004: Art and the Oval Office: Presidential Selections from the Nation's Museums, 1960-2000, The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, 2004-2005, no cat.

2005: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Craig R. Stapleton, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 2005-2009.

2009: Extended loan for use by Vice President and Mrs. Joseph Biden, Vice President's House, Washington, D.C., 2009-2015.

Bibliography

1925: Downes, William Howe. John S. Sargent: His Life and Work. Boston, 1925: 205-206.

1927: Charteris, Evan. John Sargent. New York: Scribner's, 1927, p. 270.

1956: McKibbin, David. Sargent's Boston. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956: 47, 88.

1969: Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. Rev. ed. (originally published 1955). New York, 1969: 434.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 96, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 218, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: repro. 145, 146.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 568, no. 864, color repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 332, repro.

1997: Rolfe, Julia Rayer, David Cannadine, Kenneth McConkey, and Wilfrid Mellers. The Portrait of a Lady: Sargent and Lady Agnew. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1997: 84, no. 8, repro.

1998: Ormond, Richard, and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits. The Complete Paintings, Volume III. New Haven and London, 2003: no. 417, repro.

1998: Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 115-117, color repro.