"Vernon Lee" by John Singer Sargent

Vernon Lee

John Singer Sargent

1881

Oil paint on canvas

Support: 537 x 432 mm; frame: 750 x 640 x 88 mm

Courtesy of the Tate Gallery, London (N04877)

Released on the Creative Commons license, CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported). Image download, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee.

Explaining that Vernon Lee was the pen-name of the writer and art critic, Violet Paget (1856-1935), the Tate Gallery's label of August 2004 added that "Sargent had known her since childhood when their families had been neighbours in Nice, and she remained a friend all his life.'" [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links. Commentary continues below.]

The label also tells that the "portrait sketch was painted in a single session lasting three hours. Sargent gave it to her, writing on it through the paint 'to my friend Violet'.... In this sketch his free brushwork makes for a brilliant illusion, and suggests the ambiguity of this author who adopted a male name." In fact, Sargent's likeness fits well with descriptions of her as "very plain, decidedly masculine in appearance" (qtd. in Stern 151), with short hair and unfeminine clothes, and a penetrating critical intelligence that resists being confined to one gender or the other. Note: Sargent's writing can be seen along the top, from just before the middle.

Bibliography

Stern, Kimberly J. The Social Life of Criticism: Gender, Critical Writing, and the Politics of Belonging. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016.

Created 9 April 2017