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A woman with pale skin and reddish, auburn hair stands facing and looking at us on a grassy lawn, wearing a long black dress in this vertical portrait painting. She stands with her body angled slightly to our right but turns to look at us with heavy-lidded, hazel eyes under pointed brows. She has a narrow face, a straight nose, and her full, pink lips are closed. Her cheeks are lightly flushed and she has a cleft in her chin. Her copper-colored, curly hair is pulled back, and bangs sweep across her forehead. Her black dress has a fitted bodice and the long, narrow skirt ends in layers of ruffles at the hem. A spray of white fabric, perhaps taffeta, is tied in a flaring bow at her neck, partially overlapping a tomato-red object, perhaps a flower or corsage, on her left shoulder, farther from us. The tight sleeves of her dress are black lace, and the cuffs are lined with more sprays of white. She holds up her skirt with both hands, close to her left thigh. Where the hem is lifted, the layers of white fabric underneath are exposed, creating an S-shape that curves down to her feet. The sheen on the layers of ruffles suggest that the black skirt, at least, is made from silk. She wears jeweled rings on the fourth finger of each hand and dangling, sparkling earrings. She stands on an oyster-colored ground, probably a walking path, in front of a lawn that fills most of the background. Touches of yellow and pale purple suggest flowers in the lawn, which fades from muted, pine green close to us to mint green in the distance. The carpet of the lawn is broken only by a birch tree near the upper right corner. A spray of leaves, presumably from a tree just outside the composition, dips into the scene at the upper right as well. Some trees and a white, stone structure with steps and a balustrade line the top edge of the composition. The artist inscribed the work with brown script in the lower right corner, where it reads: “John S. Sargent Ronjoux 1879.”

John Singer Sargent

Marie Buloz Pailleron (Madame Édouard Pailleron), 1879

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 86

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 211.2 × 104.4 cm (83 1/8 × 41 1/8 in.)

framed: 246.7 × 139.07 × 15.88 cm (97 1/8 × 54 3/4 × 6 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase and gifts of Katherine McCook Knox, John A. Nevius and Mr. and Mrs. Lansdell K. Christie)

Accession Number

2014.79.53

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

lower right: John S. Sargent / Ronjoux 1879

Provenance

Commissioned 1879 by Edouard Pailleron, Chambéry, France; by descent 1899 to his daughter, Marie-Louise Pailleron; by descent 1950 to her son, Henri Bourget-Pailleron; his widow; purchased 1964 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Bourget-Pailleron, Henri
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

1880: Salon de 1880, Palais des Champs-Élysées, 1880, no. 3428, as Portrait de Mme E.P.

1929: Exposition des cent ans de vie française: Centenaire de la Revue des deux mondes, 1829-1929, L'Hôtel Jean Charpentier, Paris, 1929, no. 754.

1963: John S. Sargent, 1856-1925, Centre Culturel Américain, Paris, 1963, no. 3.

1964: The Private World of John Singer Sargent, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cleveland Museum of Art; Worcester Art Museum; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1964-1965, no. 7.

1966: Art of the United States: 1670-1966, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September-November 1966, no. 247.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, April-September 1966, unpublished checklist.

1983: John Singer Sargent at the Corcoran, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1983, unpublished checklist.

1986: John Singer Sargent, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, 1986-1987, unnumbered catalogue.

1997: Uncanny Spectacle: The Public Career of the Young John Singer Sargent, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 1997, no. 9.

1998: John Singer Sargent, Tate Britain, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1998-1999, no. 19.

2003: The Impressionist Tradition in America, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2003-2004, unpublished checklist.

2004: Great Expectations: John Singer Sargent Painting Children, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2004-2005, unnumbered catalogue.

2005: Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 45.

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2009: John Singer Sargent in the Corcoran Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 11 July 2009-3 January 2010, unpublished checklist.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2015: Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, National Portrait Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2015, no. 10, repro.

2018: John Singer Sargent, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2018-2019, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1998: Kilmurray, Elaine, and Richard Ormond, eds. John Singer Sargent. Exh. cat. Tate Britain, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Princeton, 1998; Washington, 1999: no. 19, repro.

1998: Ormond, Richard, and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits. The Complete Paintings, Volume I. New Haven and London, 1998: no. 25, repro.

2011: Simpson, Marc. "John Singer Sargent, Marie Buloz Pailleron (Madame Édouard Pailleron)." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 148-149, 269, repro.