About the Artwork
The American painter John Singer Sargent conveyed evocative personal details with a remarkable economy of brushstrokes in this portrait of his friend Judith Gautier (1845 – 1917). Gautier’s white kimono, which glows in the dimly lit room, may nod to her important translations of Japanese poetry. She leans against a piano covered in sheet music, acknowledging both her work as a music critic and her romantic entanglement with German composer Richard Wagner. The combined effect shows Gautier surrounded by emblems of her scholarly and artistic life.
Sargent painted this portrait directly onto the surface of a wooden kitchen tabletop, probably in the summer of 1883 — one of at least three, or possibly four, portraits he made of Gautier that summer. The sketchlike qualities of a painting created as a token of affection for a friend contrast with the glamorous finish of the society portraits Sargent painted the same year.
Judith Gautier
ca. 1885
John Singer Sargent
1856-1925
American
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Oil on panel
Unframed: 39 × 24 1/2 inches (99.1 × 62.2 cm) Framed: 46 1/4 × 32 5/16 × 3 5/8 inches (117.5 × 82.1 × 9.2 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Kanzler
54.100
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
John Singer Sargent;until 1918, Mme. Judith Gautier;
until 1934, bequeathed Suzanne Meyer-Zundel;
January 18, 1934, sale,Tableaux Modernes Appartenant a divers amateurs. . .Oeuvres de John-Singer Sargent, lot 122, Hotel Drouot (Paris, France) [as Judith Gautier chez elle];
1934, Schoeller, Scott & Fowles (New York, New York, USA);
1934, Julius H. Weitzer and E. J. Rousuck (New York, New York, USA).
Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Kanzler;
1954-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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de Gourmont, Remy. Judith Gautier. Paris, 1904, p. 33.
Mauclair, Camille. “John Sargent.” L’Art et les Artistes 4 (October 1907-March 1907): p. 376.
Rosenthal, Leon. “Exposition de Portraits de Femmes a Bagatelle.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 2 (July 1909): pp. 59-60 (ill.).
Portraits de Femmes sous les Trois Republiques. Exh. cat. le Palais de Bagatelle. Paris, 1909, no. 174.
Exposition du Centenaire de la Revue des Deux Mondes. Exh. cat., l’Hôtel Charpentier. Paris, 1929, no. 402.
Richardson, E.P. “Acquisitions.” Bulletin of the DIA 33, 3 and 4 (1953-1954): p. 81 (ill.).
Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York, 1955, pp. 80, 430.
Mount, Charles Merrill. “John Singer Sargent and Judith Gautier.” Art Quarterly XVIII (Summer 1955): pp. 142-143 (fig. 5).
McKibbin, David. Sargent’s Boston: with an Essay and a Biographical Summary and a Complete Checklist of Sargent’s Portraits. Boston, 1956, p. 97.
Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. London, 1957, pp. 71-72, 338.
Painting in America. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1957, no. 123.
Bizardel, Yvon. American Painters in Paris. New York, 1960, p. 159.
The Private World of John Singer Sargent. Exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1964, no. 28.
Richardson, E.P. Painting in America. New York, 1965, p. 282.
Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York, 1969, p. 80, 439.
Cummings, Frederick J. and Charles H. Elam, eds. The Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p. 148.
Ratcliff, Carter. John Singer Sargent. New York, 1982 (pl. 123).
Olson, Stanley. John Singer Sargent: His Portrait. London, 1986, p. 148.
Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits (Complete Paintings, Vol. 1). New Haven, CT, 1998, pp. 80-82 (ill.).
Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. London, 2015, pp. 62-63 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
John Singer Sargent, Judith Gautier, ca. 1885, oil on panel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Kanzler, 54.100.
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