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Miss Susan Strong

John Singer Sargent American, 1856-1925
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  • About the Artwork

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  • Markings

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  • Provenance

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  • Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

American soprano Susan Strong (1870 ‒ 1946) made her debut in 1895 at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London, singing the role of Sieglinde in Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) by the German composer Richard Wagner. She continued her career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as in Vienna and Naples.
An accomplished pianist and Wagner enthusiast, John Singer Sargent created large-scale evocative charcoal portraits, which usually took two or three hours to finish. The inscription in the top left, “to Miss Susan Strong | John S. Sargent,” records the gift of this portrait from one American artist to another.

Miss Susan Strong

before 1906

John Singer Sargent

1856-1925

American

Unknown

Charcoal on cream laid paper

Sheet: 23 7/8 × 17 3/4 inches (60.6 × 45.1 cm) Framed: 30 1/4 × 24 1/4 × 1 inches (76.8 × 61.6 × 2.5 cm)

Drawings

Prints, Drawings & Photographs

Gift of Mrs. Stevenson Scott

51.119

Public Domain

Markings

Signed, upper left, below inscription: John S. Sargent

Inscribed, upper left: to Miss Susan Strong

Provenance

Mrs. Stevenson Scott;
1951-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition 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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Published References

Gilder, Jeannette Leonard and Joseph Benson Gilder. The Critic, vol. 48. (1906): https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqrPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA12#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed on May 13, 2019. pp. 12-13.

The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, vol. 55 (1906): https://books.google.com/books?id=ioE4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA428#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed on May 13, 2019. p. 428.

Ormond, Richard. John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal. Exh. cat., The Morgan Library & Museum and Smithsonian Institution. New York and Washington D.C., 2019.pp. 104-105, (ill.) cat. 18.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

John Singer Sargent, Miss Susan Strong, before 1906, charcoal on cream laid paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Stevenson Scott, 51.119.

Miss Susan Strong
Miss Susan Strong