Ellen Peabody Endicott (Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott)

1901

John Singer Sargent

Artist, American, 1856 - 1925

A woman with pale skin, wearing a sheer, lace shawl over a high-necked, ink-black dress sits in an upholstered chair in front of a dark, cranberry-red curtain in this vertical portrait painting. The chair and her body nearly fill the composition, though her feet may be cropped by the bottom edge. She sits angled to our right but she turns her face to look at us with gray eyes under arched brows. Shadows line the creases above her eyelids. Set in her thin, oval face, she has a long nose, high cheekbones, and her coral-red lips are closed in a straight line. She is lit from our left, and the light glints in her silvery-gray hair, which is pulled up and back. Her velvety-black, long dress seems to have puffed upper arms over long sleeves that end with wide lace cuffs. The lace shawl wrapped around her shoulders is fastened with a gold pin at her chest, and the ends fall into her lap near her right hand, closer to us. Her other arm rests along the arm of the low-backed chair so her long, elegant fingers dangle off the end. She wears a ring on each hand, including one glinting turquoise, perhaps indicating that it is a dark stone, and one with a pearl. The fabric on the chair is loosely painted with a tan-colored floral design against oyster white. A small, wooden table with a round top to our left, near her right elbow, holds a book with a sage-green cover and vivid red edges, and a shiny, gold, round box. Barely visible against the red curtain behind the woman in the upper right corner is the artist’s signature and date: “John S. Sargent 1901.”

Media Options

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Ellen Peabody Endicott (1833–1927) was a prominent society hostess in Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, and later in Washington, DC. Born into an affluent Salem shipping family, in 1859 she married William Crowninshield Endicott (1826–1900), who served on the Supreme Court of Massachusetts and was President Grover Cleveland’s secretary of war from 1885 to 1889. The National Gallery of Art collection also includes Sargent’s portrait of the couple’s daughter, Mary Crowninshield Endicott Chamberlain (1958.2.1).

Combining technical brilliance with an intimate portrait of its subject, Ellen Peabody Endicott exemplifies Sargent’s mannered society portraiture. Mrs. Endicott is shown seated in an upholstered chair beside a small wooden table topped with a book and other personal effects. The crimson curtain backdrop and Mrs. Endicott’s embroidered shawl demonstrate Sargent’s expertise in rendering fabric textures and draping. A heavy black mourning dress hints at a possible reason for the sitter’s melancholy expression: the recent death of her husband.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II, pages 113-115, which is available as a free PDF (21MB).

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Artwork overview

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Video:  Paint Like a Great: John Singer Sargent

Washington, D.C. artist David Rashid Ibata takes on the challenge of copying John Singer Sargent's portrait Ellen Peabody Endicott.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The sitter's son, William C. Endicott, Jr. [1860-1936], Boston; his wife, Louise Thoron Endicott, Boston; gift 1951 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1902

  • Second Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, The Copley Society of Boston, Copley Hall, Boston, 1902, no. 95.

  • 134th Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1902, no. 148.

1914

  • Loan Exhibition of Portraits by Living Painters, The Copley Society of Boston, Copley Hall, Boston, 1914, no. 16.

1915

  • Opening Exhibition of the Robert Dawson Evans Memorial Galleries for Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1915, unnumbered checklist (published as Special Number, Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 75, February 3, 1915).

1916

  • Exhibition of Paintings by John Singer Sargent, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1916, no cat.

1924

  • Retrospective Exhibition of Important Works of John Singer Sargent, Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1924, no. 12.

1925

  • Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late John Singer Sargent, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1925, no. 75, repro.

1926

  • Memorial Exhibition of the Work of John Singer Sargent, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1926, no. 38.

1954

  • Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt, The Art Institute of Chicago; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1954, no. 61, repro.

1956

  • A Centennial Exhibition, Sargent's Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956, no. 32, fig. 29.

1999

  • Picturing Old New England: Image and Memory, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., 1999, no. 54, repro.

Bibliography

1925

  • Downes, William Howe. John S. Sargent: His Life and Work. Boston, 1925: 57, 200-201.

1927

  • Charteris, Evan. John Sargent. New York: Scribner's, 1927, p. 268.

1954

  • Sweet, Frederick A. Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt. Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, 1954: 62.

1956

  • McKibbin, David. Sargent's Boston. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956: 47, 94.

1969

  • Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. Rev. ed. (originally published 1955).New York, 1969: 240, 437.

1970

  • Ormond, Richard. John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors. New York, 1970: 66, 250, 253, pl. 85.

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

1980

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 16

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 218, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 145-6, color repro.157.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 568, no. 866, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 331, 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: 113-115, color repro.

  • Ormond, Richard, and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits. The Complete Paintings, Volume III. New Haven and London, 2003: no. 400, repro.

Inscriptions

upper right: John S. Sargent 1901

Wikidata ID

Q20190780

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