“Mrs Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel” by John Singer Sargent
“Mrs Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel” is an oil on canvas portrait painting completed in 1903 by the American portrait artist John Singer Sargent.
Gretchen Osgood Warren came from a prominent Boston family and was an accomplished poet as well as being an actress and singer. She posed with her eldest daughter Rachel at Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Mansion (now the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), where Sargent had set up a temporary studio.
Gretchen was born in 1871 to an affluent family from the historic neighbourhood of Beacon Hill, Boston. Due to her family’s wealth, she was able to study and pursue music and drama. She married into another affluent Beacon Hill family when she became the wife of Fiske Warren in 1891, twelve years before this painting.
Sargent depicts Gretchen seated in a Renaissance-styled chair with her daughter tightly by her side and seated on a smaller chair by her side. Sargent is emulating an aristocratic pose while using a modern approach to the brush strokes.
John Singer Sargent is considered one of the leading portrait painters and is known for his evocations of the luxury of his era. He created over 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolours, as well as multiple sketches and drawings. He also travelled extensively across Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Many of John Singer Sargent portraits which can be found in museums across the world, depict society’s leading lights and the opulence of their time.
Reflections:
- What is it about a John Singer Sargent portrait that makes them immediately identifiable as one of his works?
Masterpieces of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- ” Mrs Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel” by John Singer Sargent
- “Dance at Bougival” by Auguste Renoir
- Relief of a Winged Genius
- “The Fog Warning” by Winslow Homer
- “The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit” by John Singer Sargent
- “Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair” by Paul Cézanne
- Masterpieces of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mrs Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel
- Title: Mrs Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel
- Artist: John Singer Sargent
- Year: 1903
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions 152.4 cm × 102.55 cm (60.0 in × 40.37 in)
- Museum: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
John Singer Sargent
- Name: John Singer Sargent
- Born: 1856 – Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
- Died: 1925 (aged 69) – London, England, U.K.
- Nationality: American
- Notable works:
- Mrs Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel
- Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)
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“Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
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Photo Credit: John Singer Sargent [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons