[Rob Sullivan]

David, that's a solid choice. Gabrielle Cot haunts my dreams - so that obviously got its hooks into me.

When that big Sargent show came to Boston MFA a number of yers ago, just about everything there left me either a drooling gawper or a gibbering idiot. I had to see the whole thing about three times during its tenure there, just so I could digest it all. Talk about retina burn! My opthomalogist has never forgiven me.

This may seem to some an odd choice, but in that whole incredible show, Elsie Palmer really got to me. Her countenance was (as shown in photos of her) already compelling, but the composition and limited palette brings it all together in the most subtle, but gripping way.