Object details
Accession number
ARC.009263
Primary Creator
John Templeman Coolidge
(Boston, 1856 - 1945)
Full title
John Singer Sargent Painting Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and her daughter Rachel in the Gothic Room
Creation Date
1903
Object Case
Sargent / Whistler Case
Provenance
Probably a gift from John Templeman Coolidge to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1903.
Dimensions
16.2 x 13.7 cm (6 3/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
Display Media
Platinum print
Web Commentary
John Singer Sargent was the first artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. During the month of April 1903 he slept in a guest room (now called the Macknight Room) and created new works of art in his temporary studio, the Gothic Room. John Templeman Coolidge, an artist and friend of Isabella’s, took several photographs of Sargent painting the portrait of Gretchen Osgood Warren and her daughter Rachel in the Gothic Room. These candid pictures show Sargent in a whirl of activity with brush and palette in hand—and a cigarette in his mouth. A dark curtain attempts to block the light coming through the stained-glass windows behind the seated pair. Surely delighted with their surroundings, Gretchen and Rachel laugh as Sargent turns to smile at the camera.
Permanent Gallery Location
Long Gallery
Bibliography
Alan Chong. "Mrs. Gardner's museum of myth." Res 52 (Autumn 2007), pp. 212-220, fig. 6.
David McKibbin. Sargent's Boston, with an Essay and Biographical Summary and a Complete Check List of Sargent's Portraits (Boston, 1956), pp. 47-50, fig. 34.
Colm Tobín. "Henry James, Shadow and Substance" in Colm Tobín et. al. Henry James and American Painting. Exh. cat. (New York: The Morgan Library and Museum, 2017), p. 40, fig. 18.
Christina Nielsen (ed.). Sargent on Location: Gardner's First Artist-in-Residence. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2018), p. 28, ill. p. 31, fig. 18, p. 57, no. 6.
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