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Shown from about the knees up, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a long, flowing, peachy-pink satin dress, looks at us in this vertical portrait painting. Her shoulders are slightly angled to our left, and she gazes out with dark gray eyes set in an oval face. She has a long, narrow nose, smooth skin, and her pink lips are closed. Her light brown hair is pulled up and twisted into a loose bun high on her head, and a curl hangs down the center of her forehead. A pearl necklace rests at the base of her neck. Her dress has a low, sweeping neckline and short, fluttering sleeves. The peach of the fabric almost blends in with the color of her skin in some areas. The dress has a tightly fitted bodice around a notably narrow waist, which is tied with a gold sash and bow. A gold ribbon from the bow on the side of her waist leads to another farther down her skirt, near her left knee, to our right. More gold bows are tied atop her shoulders. The deep folds of her peach skirt are shaded with darker coral streaks. The two orchids she holds at her chest are mostly white but they have a couple of pale, lavender-purple petals, and each has a deep magenta-pink tongue. The background lightens from coppery brown along the top to a golden tan along the bottom. Some areas of the portrait are loosely painted, especially in the skirt and background. The artist signed the painting in the upper left corner, “John S. Sargent” and dated it in the upper right, “1890.”

John Singer Sargent

Miss Grace Woodhouse, 1890

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 162.9 x 94 cm (64 1/8 x 37 in.)

framed: 177.5 x 108.3 cm (69 7/8 x 42 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Olga Roosevelt Graves

Accession Number

1962.6.1

Artists / Makers

John Singer Sargent (artist) American, 1856 - 1925

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

upper left: John S. Sargent; upper right: 1890

Provenance

The sitter's father, Lorenzo Guernsey Woodhouse [1839-1903], New York; possibly his nephew (the sitter's cousin), Lorenzo E. Woodhouse, New York;[1] the sitter's daughter, Olga Roosevelt Bayne Graves [Mrs. Sidney C. Graves, 1891-1962], Washington, D.C.; gift 1962 to NGA.

[1] He lent the painting to the Brooklyn Museum from 1909 to 1913. According to information supplied by the museum's former curator Axel von Saldern, letter of 5 April 1965 in NGA curatorial files, the portrait was exhibited there under the title "Portrait of a Lady," and lent by Lorenzo E. Woodhouse. It was listed as no. 311 in the 1910 catalogue of paintings.

Associated Names

Graves, Olga Roosevelt
Woodhouse, Lorenzo E.
Woodhouse, Lorenzo Guernsey

Exhibition History

1891: Sixty-Sixth Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1891, no. 230, as Portrait.

1909: Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, 1909-1913, no. 311.

1982: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Arthur Hartmann, U.S. Embassy residence, Moscow, U.S.S.R., 1982-1984.

1987: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Henry A. Catto, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1987-1991.

1991: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Raymond G. H. Seitz, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1991-1994.

1994: Extended loan for use by Ambassador William J. Crowe, Jr., U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1994-1995.

1998: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Philip Lader, U.S. Embassy residence, London, England, 1998-2001.

2005: Extended loan for use by Ambassador Craig R. Stapleton, U.S. Embassy residence, Paris, France, 2005-2009.

Bibliography

1956: McKibbin, David. Sargent's Boston. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956: 120, as Mrs. Robert Barnwell Roosevelt (Grace Woodhouse).

1969: Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. Rev. ed. New York, 1969: 450, as Mrs. R.B. Roosevelt, Jr. (originally published 1955).

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 96, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 220, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 331, repro.

1998: Ormond, Richard, and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s. The Complete Paintings, Volume II. New Haven and London, 2002: no. 249, repro.

1998: Torchia, Robert Wilson, with Deborah Chotner and Ellen G. Miles. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 111-113, color repro.