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Thanks for that information Marcus.
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Thanks to Enzie for posting that fabulous J.S. Sargent going up for auction at the end of this month. Below is an excerpt from her post regarding some of the history of the painting and in particular a comparison to Boldini. I've posted one of Boldini's portraits here along side of this Sargent portrait for the comparison which the author suggests.
I had pulled out this Boldini painting prior to Enzie's post but could not find the right words to describe the feeling that it stirred. I think this excerpt articulates very well what I could not:
"In part due to his "instinctive refinement," Sargent became the most sought-after portraitist of his age. In 1902, Charles Caffin wrote in American Masters of Painting comparing Sargent's work to his well-known contemporary Giovanni Boldini, "It would be quite impossible for him to have any feelings toward his [Sargent's] subjects other than those of a true gentleman; and, though he may represent in a lady a full flavour of the modern spirit, he never allows the modernity to exceed the limits of good taste. For the same reason Sargent's pictures, though many of them have a restlessness of their own, seem quiet alongside Boldini's. The latter makes a motive of nervous tenuosity, and his pictures, if seen frequently, become wiry in suggestion, and defeat their own purpose of being vibrative; but Sargent's, controlled by a fine sobriety of feeling, another phase of his unfailing taste and tact, retain their suppleness. Their actuality is all the more convincing because it is not the motive, but an incident." (as quoted in G.A. Reynolds, "Sargent's Late Portraits," John Singer Sargent, New York, 1986, p. 176)"
J. S. Sargent - Mildred Carter, 40x30
Giovanni Boldini - Consuelo Marlborough and Son
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Mike McCarty
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