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Sargent chose to depict the Marchesa seated, in a half-length format. She is enrobed in a creamy taffeta cloak embellished with a high ruffled collar and silk flowers. The ruffles of the cape, nearly abstract on close examination, are a supreme example of his “irreverently rapid, off-hand, dashing and clever” brushwork. [1] She wears a double strand of pearls at her neck and pearl earrings, as well as a brooch on her chest. The pearls demonstrate Sargent’s astonishing illusionistic skill; they are composed of discreet dabs of white paint that, from a distance, resolve themselves into pearls. Her hand, elegantly bejeweled with rings, holds a walking stick that resembles a scepter. Her dark hair is swept up and piled on top of her head, blending into the dark background. Her cheeks are pink and her lips are red. She gazes directly at the viewer, her face alight with intelligence and even a suggestion of wit. Sargent’s biographer and grand-nephew Richard Ormond suggests that the form at left may be a decorative screen, one of the many props that the artist kept in his studio for his portraits. [2]
According to the del Castillos’ descendants, Sargent painted this portrait in London in 1903, most likely late in the year. [3] He had spent the first half of the year in America installing a section of the Triumph of Religion murals in the Boston Public Library. [4] Upon his departure from the States, he sailed for Spain. In June, he wrote to Isabella Stewart Gardner from Madrid that he planned to travel on to Portugal before returning to his painting obligations in London. [5] The time he spent in Madrid must have reinforced his admiration for Diego Velasquez; Sargent’s famous portrait The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, executed twenty years earlier, for example, had been a modern tribute to Spanish master’s Las Meninas, 1656, Museo del Prado, Madrid. The portrait of Laura del Castillo is clearly executed in the mode of the Spanish Baroque artist and compares favorably with Velasquez’s portrait of the Infanta Dona Maria from 1630, which Sargent could have seen at the Prado. [6] The half-length format, the dark background, the slashing paint technique, the voluminous clothing, the hooded eyes, and the slight turn of the head all recall Velasquez’s portraits of the noblewomen of Spain. Compared to the fair, pink-cheeked Mrs. Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel, 1903, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, painted earlier in the year, the Marchesa’s dark beauty is exotic and dramatic. Here, Sargent takes Velasquez’s Baroque conventions and applies them to the Marchesa, creating a new Spanish noblewoman for the modern world.
Notes:
[1] Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1999), 31.
[2] Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 118.
[3] Kilmurray and Ormond, John Singer Sargent, 118. Others had dated the painting to 1896, but Ormond, citing documentation from the sitter’s family and stylistic resonance with other paintings from that year, contends the date needs to be 1903.
[4] Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent, 275.
[5] Stanley Olson, John Singer Sargent: His Portrait (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), 227.
[6] http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Velazquez_Diego-Infanta_Dona_Maria_Queen_of_Hungary
ProvenanceBarbara B. Millhouse, New York. [1]
Notes:
[1] Loan Agreement.
Exhibition History2002-2003
Sargent and Italy
Palazzo dei Diamante, Ferrara, Italy (9/29/2002-1/6/2003)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2/9/2003-5/11/2003)
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (6/21/2003-9/14/2003)
2009
American Impressions: Selections from the National Academy
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/28/2009-6/28/2009)
2009-2010
Expatriates
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/5/2009-4/5/2010)
Published ReferencesMount, Charles Merrill, John Singer Sargent: A Biography. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 1955, no. 0312.
DepartmentCollection of Barbara B. Millhouse
Marchesa Laura Spinola Núñez del Castillo
Artist
John Singer Sargent
(1856 - 1925)
Date1903
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 42 7/8 x 37 1/4 in. (108.9 x 94.6 cm)
Canvas: 34 1/4 x 28 3/8 in. (87 x 72.1 cm)
Image: 32 5/8 x 26 1/2 in. (82.9 x 67.3 cm)
SignedJohn S. Sargent
Credit LineCourtesy of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object numberIL2003.1.38
DescriptionJohn Singer Sargent’s portrait of the Marchesa Laura Spinola Núñez del Castillo stands apart from his large body of commissioned portraits because of the artist’s personal relationship with the sitter. She was the wife of Sargent’s oldest friend, Ben del Castillo, the son of American expatriates originally from Cuba whom the artist first met when he was six years old. The two corresponded for many years. Sargent dedicated the painting to him, inscribing it at the top in dark paint, “To my old friend B.S. del Castillo / John S. Sargent.” Painted in 1903 at the height of Sargent’s popularity, the portrait shows an elegantly dressed woman with a lively twinkle in her eye and the hint of a smile at her mouth.Sargent chose to depict the Marchesa seated, in a half-length format. She is enrobed in a creamy taffeta cloak embellished with a high ruffled collar and silk flowers. The ruffles of the cape, nearly abstract on close examination, are a supreme example of his “irreverently rapid, off-hand, dashing and clever” brushwork. [1] She wears a double strand of pearls at her neck and pearl earrings, as well as a brooch on her chest. The pearls demonstrate Sargent’s astonishing illusionistic skill; they are composed of discreet dabs of white paint that, from a distance, resolve themselves into pearls. Her hand, elegantly bejeweled with rings, holds a walking stick that resembles a scepter. Her dark hair is swept up and piled on top of her head, blending into the dark background. Her cheeks are pink and her lips are red. She gazes directly at the viewer, her face alight with intelligence and even a suggestion of wit. Sargent’s biographer and grand-nephew Richard Ormond suggests that the form at left may be a decorative screen, one of the many props that the artist kept in his studio for his portraits. [2]
According to the del Castillos’ descendants, Sargent painted this portrait in London in 1903, most likely late in the year. [3] He had spent the first half of the year in America installing a section of the Triumph of Religion murals in the Boston Public Library. [4] Upon his departure from the States, he sailed for Spain. In June, he wrote to Isabella Stewart Gardner from Madrid that he planned to travel on to Portugal before returning to his painting obligations in London. [5] The time he spent in Madrid must have reinforced his admiration for Diego Velasquez; Sargent’s famous portrait The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, executed twenty years earlier, for example, had been a modern tribute to Spanish master’s Las Meninas, 1656, Museo del Prado, Madrid. The portrait of Laura del Castillo is clearly executed in the mode of the Spanish Baroque artist and compares favorably with Velasquez’s portrait of the Infanta Dona Maria from 1630, which Sargent could have seen at the Prado. [6] The half-length format, the dark background, the slashing paint technique, the voluminous clothing, the hooded eyes, and the slight turn of the head all recall Velasquez’s portraits of the noblewomen of Spain. Compared to the fair, pink-cheeked Mrs. Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel, 1903, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, painted earlier in the year, the Marchesa’s dark beauty is exotic and dramatic. Here, Sargent takes Velasquez’s Baroque conventions and applies them to the Marchesa, creating a new Spanish noblewoman for the modern world.
Notes:
[1] Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1999), 31.
[2] Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 118.
[3] Kilmurray and Ormond, John Singer Sargent, 118. Others had dated the painting to 1896, but Ormond, citing documentation from the sitter’s family and stylistic resonance with other paintings from that year, contends the date needs to be 1903.
[4] Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, John Singer Sargent, 275.
[5] Stanley Olson, John Singer Sargent: His Portrait (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), 227.
[6] http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Velazquez_Diego-Infanta_Dona_Maria_Queen_of_Hungary
ProvenanceBarbara B. Millhouse, New York. [1]
Notes:
[1] Loan Agreement.
Exhibition History2002-2003
Sargent and Italy
Palazzo dei Diamante, Ferrara, Italy (9/29/2002-1/6/2003)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2/9/2003-5/11/2003)
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (6/21/2003-9/14/2003)
2009
American Impressions: Selections from the National Academy
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/28/2009-6/28/2009)
2009-2010
Expatriates
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/5/2009-4/5/2010)
Published ReferencesMount, Charles Merrill, John Singer Sargent: A Biography. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 1955, no. 0312.
Status
On view