  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.
  
  
  Title
  Judith Gautier
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1885
  
  Artist
  John Singer Sargent
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1856-1925
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  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)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Kanzler
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  54.100
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
