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)
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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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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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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.
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