Object details
Accession number
S.G.Sar.4.2.4.17
Primary Creator
John Singer Sargent
(Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Full title
Cafe Scene, Seville
Creation Date
1879
Provenance
Gift from John Singer Sargent to Isabella Stewart Gardner in a sketchbook containing 18 sheets with 22 drawings in 1919.
Marks
Signed in pencil (upper right): John S. Sargent. Seville.
Dimensions
23.9 x 33 cm (9 7/16 x 13 in.)
Display Media
Graphite on paper
Web Commentary
John Singer Sargent traveled to Spain eight times, once as a child and seven times as an adult. He took his first extended (adult) trip there in 1879. In the wake of that journey, he created his most famous Spanish painting: El Jaleo, which Isabella ultimately bought and displayed prominently in her museum—where it remains on view today. This sketch—and the sketchbook it is part of—was probably completed on-site during his travels in 1879.
Permanent Gallery Location
Short Gallery
Bibliography
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). Drawings: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1968), p. 46, no. 22, ill. (as "A Couple in a Cabaret")Richard Ormond. "Sargent's El Jaleo." Fenway Court (1970), pp. 2-18.Mary Crawford Volk. John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 1992), pp. 170-184, no. 27-45.Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 159. Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1871–1882. Complete Paintings Volume IV. (New Haven and London, 2006), pp. 225-275, fig. 123.Sarah Cash, Elaine Kilmurray, and Richard Ormond. Sargent & Spain. Exh. cat. (Washington DC, National Gallery of Art, 2022; Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 2023), pp. 81, no. 38.
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