Elsie Palmer (1872-1955)
John Singer Sargent, RA (Florence 1856 - London 1925)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1889 - 1890
Materials
Oil on canvas on board
Measurements
500 x 315 mm
Order this imageCollection
Ightham Mote, Kent
NT 826025
Summary
Oil on canvas on board, Elsie Palmer (1872-1955), John Singer Sargent, RA (Florence 1856 - London 1925), 1889-1890. A portrait of a young woman in the Great Hall at Ightham Mote, standing, with a collie dog at her feet. The sitter wears a pale pink high-necked long-sleeved dress, tied at the waist, her hair styled at shoulder length with a fringe. A trefoil window, wood panelling, fireplace, furniture and carpet are loosely depicted in the background. Elsie Palmer was the daughter of the American civil engineer, industrialist and founder of Colorado Springs, General William Jackson Palmer (1836-1909) and his wife, Mary Lincoln ('Queen') Mellen. The Palmers rented Ightham Mote from 1887 to 1890. This is an early example of a preliminary oil sketch for a portrait by Sargent, which culminated in 'Miss Elsie Palmer, or A Lady in White', a portrait of 1890 that is today in the collection of the Fine Arts Center of Colorado College, Colorado Springs (inv.no. FA 1969.3.1). The sketch was painted at Ightham Mote in the late 1880s when Sargent was a guest of the Palmers. An associated oil study and portrait in pen, ink and wash are in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts (inv.no. 1942.58 and 1942.7.27). A further head and shoulders study in oil, unfinished, is in a private collection. See Ormond and Kilmurray 1998, vol. I, nos. 187-191, pp. 191-3. Queen and Elsie Palmer appear in A Game of Bowls, painted at Ightham Mote in 1889 (NT 826023).
Provenance
Purchased from Jane Kasmin, granddaughter of the sitter.
Makers and roles
John Singer Sargent, RA (Florence 1856 - London 1925), publisher
References
Ormond and Kilmurray 1998: Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, The Early Portraits, Complete Paintings, vol. I, New Haven and London 1998 Kilmurray and Ormond 1998: Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond (eds.), John Singer Sargent, exh.cat., Tate Gallery, London 1988, p. 139, no. 48. Ormond and Kilmurray 2016: Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, Figures and Landscapes, 1914-1925, Complete Paintings, vol. IX, New Haven and London 2016, Rebecca Hellen and Joyce H. Townsend, '"The way in which he does it": The Making of Sargent's Oils', pp. 29-55.