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Mrs. Augustus Hemenway, or Harriet Hemenway, was a prominent woman in Boston society, known primarily as the founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Harriet’s actions stemmed from her horror at the practice of killing birds for their feathers, which were used to decorate women’s hats. According to John H. Mitchell, writing in Sanctuary: The Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, “One of the seminal events in the history of activism in this country took place in a parlor in Boston’s Back Bay in 1896. On a January afternoon, that year, one of the scions of Boston society, Mrs. Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, happened to read an article that described in graphic detail the aftereffects of a plume hunter’s rampage—dead, skinned birds everywhere on the ground …. She carried the article across Clarendon Street to her cousin Minna B. Hall. There, over tea, they began to plot a strategy to put a halt to the cruel slaughter of birds for their feathers.” [2] The result was the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which led to the foundation of the National Audubon Society.
According to the sitter’s granddaughter, Augustus Hemenway asked his wife to commission a portrait from Sargent when the artist was visiting Boston. After offering her children as subjects, Harriet agreed to sit for Sargent at his request. Sargent’s wish to paint Harriet’s portrait surprised her, as she was heavily pregnant at the time.
Sargent disguised Harriet’s pregnancy in the folds of her black dress and behind the elegant gesture of her hands holding a flower. Harriet’s granddaughter Elvine recalled, “When the head seemed finished, he asked her to put her hands in some interesting way, and as they were trying various positions, he saw a vase of white flowers in the room and gave her one to hold.” [3] According to John H. Mitchell, the flower was a water lily, which was “symbolic language proclaiming her condition [of pregnancy], and a rare, even shocking public announcement for the period.” [4]
In 1916, the portrait of Harriet Hemenway was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. W.H. Downes, writing in the Boston Evening Transcript, praised the “brilliant, vital, vivid, and animated portrait of Mrs. Hemenway, also dated 1890. [It] is especially remarkable for the rich, glowing, transparent flesh tones, so handsomely contrasted with the fine tone of the black dress. The expression is that of a splendidly alive, normal, wholesome personality whose wide-open eyes look out with boldness, courage, and confidence upon a world that is well-worth living in.” [5]
[1] Stanley Olson, John Singer Sargent: His Portrait (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), 102.
[2] John H. Mitchell, “The Mothers of Conservation,” in Sanctuary: The Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society (January/February 1996), 3.
[3] Elvine Richard Rankine, quoted in Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray, and Warren Adelson, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s (Catalogue Raisonné Volume 2, 2002), 46.
[4] Mitchell, 3.
[5] W.H. Downes, quoted in Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray, and Warren Adelson, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s (Catalogue Raisonné Volume 2, 2002), 46.
Provenanceuntil 1960
The sitter
The sitter's daughter Hetty (Mrs. Auguste Richard)
until 1980
Hetty Richard's daughter Elvine (Mrs. Paul Scott Rankine),
1981
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
Private collection
1984
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
1984
Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Ireland
1993
Adelson Galleries, New York
1993 [1]
Private collection
2006 - 2022 [2]
Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Baker
From 2022
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC
Notes:
[1] Provenance information through 1993 from: Richard Onnond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s, Complete Paintings Volume II (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002)
[2] Bill of Sale, object file
Exhibition History1895
Copley Hall, Boston, Loan Collection of Portraits of Women for the Benefit of the Boston Children's Aid Society and the Sunnyside Day Nursery
1899
Copley Hall, Boston, Paintings and Sketches by John S. Sargent
1915
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Opening Exhibition, Robert Dawson Evans Memorial Gallery for Paintings
1916
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Paintings by John Singer Sargent: Bostonian Paintings
1924
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, Retrospective Exhibition of Important Works by John Singer Sargent
1925
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Memorial Exhibition of the Late John Singer Sargent
1956
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, A Centennial Exhibition: Sargent's Boston
1989
John Singer Sargent: Sargent Exhibition in Japan
Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, January 26 - February 3
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, March 2 - April 2
Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, April 8 - May 7
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, May 13 - June 11
Published References"Boston," American Art News XIV (May 20, 1916), p. 3.
W.H. Downes, "Mr. Sargent's Paintings," Boston Evening Transcript (May 10, 1916), Part Two, p. 12
"Sargent in Retrospect," Boston Herald (May 14, 1916).
Leila Mechlin, "The Sargent Exhibition: Grand Central Art Galleries. New York," American Magazine of Art XV (April 1924), pp. 169-90, illus. p. 181.
William Starkweather, "The Art of John S. Sargent.'' Mentor 12 (October 1924), illus. p. 14.
William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work (Boston, 1925), pp. 36, 163-4, illus. facing p.144.
William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work (Boston, 1926), pp. 36, 163-4, illus. facing p.144.
Evan Charteris, John Sargent (London, 1927). pp. 138, 174, 262.
Charles Merrill Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography (New York: 1955). pp. 182, 433 (9015); 1957 edition, pp. 153, 341 (9015); 1969 edition, pp. 182, 441 (9015).
Warren Adelson, Sargent at Broadway: The lmpressionist Years (New York and London, 1986), p. 58, fig.33.
Joseph Kastner, "Long Before Furs, It Was Feathers that Stirred Reformist Ire," Smithsonian vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1994), p. 98, illus. in color p. 98.
Sanctuary: The Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society (January/February 1996), illustrated in color on cover.
Richard Onnond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s, Complete Paintings Volllme II (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), no. 263, pp. 177, 46, illus. in color.
DepartmentAmerican Art
Mrs. Augustus Hemenway
Artist
John Singer Sargent
(1856 - 1925)
Date1890
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 29 3/8 × 24 7/8 in. (74.6 × 63.2 cm)
Frame: 40 × 36 × 2 1/2 in. (101.6 × 91.4 × 6.4 cm)
SignedJohn S. Sargent 1890
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Baker
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number2022.1.1
DescriptionThe most popular portrait painter of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent described himself as “a man of prodigious talent.” [1] Painting in Paris, London, New York, and Boston, Sargent invested his subjects with elegance, vitality, and, in his most successful portraits, keen psychological insights.Mrs. Augustus Hemenway, or Harriet Hemenway, was a prominent woman in Boston society, known primarily as the founder of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Harriet’s actions stemmed from her horror at the practice of killing birds for their feathers, which were used to decorate women’s hats. According to John H. Mitchell, writing in Sanctuary: The Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, “One of the seminal events in the history of activism in this country took place in a parlor in Boston’s Back Bay in 1896. On a January afternoon, that year, one of the scions of Boston society, Mrs. Harriet Lawrence Hemenway, happened to read an article that described in graphic detail the aftereffects of a plume hunter’s rampage—dead, skinned birds everywhere on the ground …. She carried the article across Clarendon Street to her cousin Minna B. Hall. There, over tea, they began to plot a strategy to put a halt to the cruel slaughter of birds for their feathers.” [2] The result was the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which led to the foundation of the National Audubon Society.
According to the sitter’s granddaughter, Augustus Hemenway asked his wife to commission a portrait from Sargent when the artist was visiting Boston. After offering her children as subjects, Harriet agreed to sit for Sargent at his request. Sargent’s wish to paint Harriet’s portrait surprised her, as she was heavily pregnant at the time.
Sargent disguised Harriet’s pregnancy in the folds of her black dress and behind the elegant gesture of her hands holding a flower. Harriet’s granddaughter Elvine recalled, “When the head seemed finished, he asked her to put her hands in some interesting way, and as they were trying various positions, he saw a vase of white flowers in the room and gave her one to hold.” [3] According to John H. Mitchell, the flower was a water lily, which was “symbolic language proclaiming her condition [of pregnancy], and a rare, even shocking public announcement for the period.” [4]
In 1916, the portrait of Harriet Hemenway was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. W.H. Downes, writing in the Boston Evening Transcript, praised the “brilliant, vital, vivid, and animated portrait of Mrs. Hemenway, also dated 1890. [It] is especially remarkable for the rich, glowing, transparent flesh tones, so handsomely contrasted with the fine tone of the black dress. The expression is that of a splendidly alive, normal, wholesome personality whose wide-open eyes look out with boldness, courage, and confidence upon a world that is well-worth living in.” [5]
[1] Stanley Olson, John Singer Sargent: His Portrait (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), 102.
[2] John H. Mitchell, “The Mothers of Conservation,” in Sanctuary: The Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society (January/February 1996), 3.
[3] Elvine Richard Rankine, quoted in Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray, and Warren Adelson, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s (Catalogue Raisonné Volume 2, 2002), 46.
[4] Mitchell, 3.
[5] W.H. Downes, quoted in Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray, and Warren Adelson, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s (Catalogue Raisonné Volume 2, 2002), 46.
Provenanceuntil 1960
The sitter
The sitter's daughter Hetty (Mrs. Auguste Richard)
until 1980
Hetty Richard's daughter Elvine (Mrs. Paul Scott Rankine),
1981
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
Private collection
1984
Coe Kerr Gallery, New York
1984
Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Ireland
1993
Adelson Galleries, New York
1993 [1]
Private collection
2006 - 2022 [2]
Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Baker
From 2022
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC
Notes:
[1] Provenance information through 1993 from: Richard Onnond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s, Complete Paintings Volume II (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002)
[2] Bill of Sale, object file
Exhibition History1895
Copley Hall, Boston, Loan Collection of Portraits of Women for the Benefit of the Boston Children's Aid Society and the Sunnyside Day Nursery
1899
Copley Hall, Boston, Paintings and Sketches by John S. Sargent
1915
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Opening Exhibition, Robert Dawson Evans Memorial Gallery for Paintings
1916
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Paintings by John Singer Sargent: Bostonian Paintings
1924
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, Retrospective Exhibition of Important Works by John Singer Sargent
1925
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Memorial Exhibition of the Late John Singer Sargent
1956
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, A Centennial Exhibition: Sargent's Boston
1989
John Singer Sargent: Sargent Exhibition in Japan
Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, January 26 - February 3
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, March 2 - April 2
Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, April 8 - May 7
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, May 13 - June 11
Published References"Boston," American Art News XIV (May 20, 1916), p. 3.
W.H. Downes, "Mr. Sargent's Paintings," Boston Evening Transcript (May 10, 1916), Part Two, p. 12
"Sargent in Retrospect," Boston Herald (May 14, 1916).
Leila Mechlin, "The Sargent Exhibition: Grand Central Art Galleries. New York," American Magazine of Art XV (April 1924), pp. 169-90, illus. p. 181.
William Starkweather, "The Art of John S. Sargent.'' Mentor 12 (October 1924), illus. p. 14.
William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work (Boston, 1925), pp. 36, 163-4, illus. facing p.144.
William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work (Boston, 1926), pp. 36, 163-4, illus. facing p.144.
Evan Charteris, John Sargent (London, 1927). pp. 138, 174, 262.
Charles Merrill Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography (New York: 1955). pp. 182, 433 (9015); 1957 edition, pp. 153, 341 (9015); 1969 edition, pp. 182, 441 (9015).
Warren Adelson, Sargent at Broadway: The lmpressionist Years (New York and London, 1986), p. 58, fig.33.
Joseph Kastner, "Long Before Furs, It Was Feathers that Stirred Reformist Ire," Smithsonian vol. 25, no. 4 (July 1994), p. 98, illus. in color p. 98.
Sanctuary: The Journal of the Massachusetts Audubon Society (January/February 1996), illustrated in color on cover.
Richard Onnond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, Portraits of the 1890s, Complete Paintings Volllme II (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), no. 263, pp. 177, 46, illus. in color.
Status
On view