Provenance

Mrs. Richard H. Townsend

Townsend, Mary Scott

American, died 1931

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A young woman with pale, peachy skin, wearing a long, silvery blue dress with a rose-pink train looks out at us in this vertical portrait painting. She stands in front of a topaz-blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds, which are shaded with shell pink and light lilac purple. Her body faces our left in profile and she turns her smiling, oval-shaped face to us. She leans her torso slightly forward. Her light brown hair is loosely piled on her head. Her gray-blue eyes are framed by delicate brows, and she has an aquiline nose, rosy cheeks and lips, and a long, elegant neck. Light glints off the dress she wears, suggesting is silk or satin. It has a low, straight neckline and the short, fluttery sleeve we can see falls off her shoulder. A long, billowing swath of light pink fabric is attached to the back of her dress, possibly with a large bow, and it drapes in lively folds down and around the front of her skirt. She holds it lightly with both hands at her thighs. She wears a thin gold bracelet on her left wrist, closer to us, and a silver ring on the third finger of that same hand. The portrait is loosely painted, especially in the clothing, so the texture of the brushstrokes is visible in many areas. The artist signed the work with brick-red paint in the upper left, “John S. Sargent” and dated the upper right, “1907.”
John Singer Sargent, Miss Mathilde Townsend, 1907, oil on canvas, Gift of the sitter, Mrs. Sumner Welles, 1952.3.1

Miss Mathilde Townsend

John Singer Sargent · 1907 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.3.1