14 May 2010

Sargent's Gibson Girl


Edith Minturn Stokes


Sargent and Mr. and Mrs. Stokes here

Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1897
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)
Oil on canvas

84 1/4 x 39 3/4 in. (214 x 101 cm)
Sargent painted this double portrait in 1897. Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (1867–1944), the son of Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes (see 65.252), was then an architect and author. His wife, Edith Minturn Stokes (1867–1937), was born in West Brighton, Staten Island, a daughter of the heir to a shipping fortune. The Stokes were married on August 25, 1895, and the portrait by Sargent was a wedding gift from James A. Scrimser. Sargent's first intention was to paint a single portrait of Edith during the summer of 1897 in Venice. After numerous posing and preparatory sessions, the artist decided to paint her as if she were just returning from a brisk walk outdoors, with a greyhound at her side. After the portrait was finished, however, the greyhound was no longer available and I. N. Phelps Stokes suggested that he take its place. Sargent agreed, and the single portrait became a double portrait.


what is it about the Gibson Girl? here
Fashioning a National Identity at the Met here

24 comments:

  1. I adore this work and I am promising myself to paint my next painting as an homage to Sargent. He is one of my favorites, his water colors, his oils - and the way he made fabric breathe---
    pve

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  2. Patricia, I will look forward to it, He was so very prolific. I confess I have a weakness for portraits. This one-its larger than life size -there is something quintessentially beautiful classic ? What is it that captivates us about this Sargent?

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  3. that's some leggy gibson girl. he did not shrink from exaggeration in the service of style.

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  4. To me this has always been the ultimate American portrait of the Gilded Age: a handsome, optimistic couple of high society, simply dressed, perfectly tailored, ruddy cheeked. It's always been one of the first things I visit when I go to the Met. Everything about this painting is right, right down to the color scheme. Fun Fact #1: Did you know that Mrs Stokes was the grand-aunt and namesake of Warhol star Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick? Fun Fact #2: The New York Times, in its announcement of the Phelps-Minturn marriage, noted, "The bride is widely known for her beauty and her poses in tableaux charitable objects have attracted the attention of artists. She posed in the Court of Honor at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago as the 'Statue of the Republic.' A photograph of this post took the first prize at the last exhibition by the Society of Photographers." Fun Fact #3: Mr Stokes' uncle W. E. D. Stokes was the first husband of the celebrated Cuban-American beauty Rita Lydig, whose shoes and various ensembles just went on display in the costume departments of the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums of art.

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  5. Mlle, yes and I believe she was tall-the size of this one noted in the copied text is one of the many things I love about it.

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  6. Aesthete, No, no and no to 1,2, and 3. and hooray to them all!!! Would love to find that Chicago Statue photo. and doesn't all come back to the shoes, vestment made, belgian?
    I adore this work as well. Breathtaking in size which creates all the mentioned it evokes. Though I have not seen the Met Show- I would have thought this particular work would have been right front and center at the Gibson girl exhibit. I immediately decided to do my own little tribute to a favorite figure in fashion, more posts to come in the next weeks. How I do love un petit aesthete's lament. pgt

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  7. For more about the Stokeses—he was reportedly "effete in manners, aristocratic in temperament, and humble to a fault"—read http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_4_urbanities-the_ghost.html ... by the 1940s their fortune was wiped out and he was "reduced to living in a two-bedroom-and-kitchenette." His wife died in the 1930s, speechless and paralyzed from strokes.

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  8. Great artistry aside, I have always wanted this outfit.

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  9. What a very confident young couple, or at least the wife. The husband was standing in the shade and was located in the background anyhow. But perhaps he had important business waiting for him, and his mind was elsewhere.

    I too would love that outfit :)

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  10. Aesthete, will got into this link. It is hard to even imagine them being anything but as they stand there. thanks for all the fascinating fun facts too

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  11. Pamela, Yes indeed.
    Hels, I guess this is what happens when the dog gets painted out and You are painted in! pgt

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  12. What a treat to see and read AAL resurrected. Got my fix for the day. Yes to all above. Sargent is to painting as Mozart is to music: fluid genius. And, since no one else picked up this leash, I'd just like to say here we have for all time to see yet another woman whose truest love was her dog, no?

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  13. Home, I second all that. how true about the dog-None other than Moses for me.Yes. pgt

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  14. Everything about this post makes me happy. Beautiful links la

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  15. Hmmm... favorite Sargent at the Met - defintitely Madame X. Great story behind it as well. Perhaps the subject of your next post?

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  16. Dear Gaye,

    If you do get a chance...the FENIMORE museum in Cooperstown, NY opens an exhibition this month:

    JOHN SINGER SARGENT ~ PORTRAITS IN PRAISE OF WOMEN

    This exhibit which runs until the end of December of this year, will feature loans from private collections,(I have lent) The Met(studies of Madame X) The Boston Fine Arts, and other major institutions.

    I hope you make a visit...I understand it is 1 1/2 hour on train from NYC.

    It is a beautiful story told thru the brush...and of course, the first time they will hold a Costume/Textile exhibit as well...The Heiress/Gibson Girl period of Sargents American Women.

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  17. Author, oh yes, so exquisite too-one can see the veining in that marble skin. The story is fascinating-a book has been written, which i have somewhere will have to track it down. Hope you are getting the comments-see Regina Joi's about a new exhibit. pgt

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  18. Regina Joi, that sounds wonderful. Would love the see if all, all. Sargent of them all certainly has that unique story to tell. It sounds like it is time to get the Sargent books back out. thank you for letting me know about this. Gaye

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  19. I've seen this portrait at the Met many times, and it always makes me hold my breath. Sargent has a way of making his subjects seem almost regal: there is a definite 'Greco" approach in the elongation of the figure.

    Speaking of all things Sargent: the Met is now has Madam X in storage in the American Wing rather than on view in the 19th century rooms.

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  20. Oh no... Madame X in exile? Again? One book that discusses the painting, as well as the painter, is Strapless: John Singer Sargent & the Fall of Madame X, by Deborah Davis. A recommended read. The book feels so modern in many ways when one thinks about today's artists and celebrities.

    An interesting thing about the painting itself is the extensive use of lavender powder by the sitter. Her skin appears highly translucent - similar to alabaster and I can't recall any other painting which captures that as well.

    From the text - "She was known for her genius for grooming and the fragrance of sensuality which rose from her bosom and fell from her skits. The extreme whiteness of her skin, said the skeptics, was caused by her ingestion of arsenic. She swallowed a small amount every day it was said. Just enough to maintain her other-wordly shade of lavender white without actually killing herself"

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  21. Sargent was the ultimate PR man for the Modern American Woman, so it's not surprising that cash-strapped European nobles were standing in line for our healthy, well-scubbed heiresses. What I've never understood is how the guy could have possibly felt burdened by having to paint such beautiful people.

    Then again, maybe the effort didn't come from having to make real-world people look beautiful, but from making beautiful people look real. Ingres' handsome, well-fed sitters look like marble statues & Boucher's be-rouged nymphettes look like porcelain dolls, but Sargent's sitters are living, breathing people. Or, at least, they seem to be. Then again, maybe Mrs, Phelps wasn't really as fresh & lovely & magnetic as she appears here--she certainly wasn't that tall--but in the long run, the issue of veracity is irrelevant. The picture creates its own truth, and if I had to choose just One Thing from the Met, it would be this painting.

    Either way, as AAL says--and at this point, I'm just glad to hear him say anything--it's THE definitive portrait of the era. Maybe of the century. Maybe it's even bigger than that. Instead of the simple line drawing of a naked couple that NASA blasted into deep space to let our neighbors know that we're here, they should have sent the Stokes' At least the Vulcans wouldn't think we're all a bunch of nudists.

    The Phelps' individual ends, sad as they were, are just a footnote to this paiting, their very real claim on immortality. If only all of us could be remembered like this.

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  22. VoiceTalk and Author- X put away? She is otherworldly. Yes that is the book I have too. Her sacrifices for beauty- imagine how she might look today. Somehow the use of arsenic seems mild in today's beauty terms.pgt

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  23. Magnaverde,Sargent's body of work is so large. I think he suffered from the artist angst of not wanting to be defined as a money maker of portraiture. He made his subjects beautiful- no doubt- they were not all so-that is why he was so sought after. Another absolute favorite of mine is el jaleo at the Gardner, another monumental piece at 94 1/2 x 137 in. He continues to intrigued. pgt

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  24. Her is the Fenimore link to John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women that Regina Joi mentioned in her comments. pgt http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1701

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