1898
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis is a 1898 unspecified by John Singer Sargent, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman in a shiny satin dress stands in a grand room. She holds a fan and looks right at you, like she’s about to greet someone. Sargent painted her as a wedding gift for her marriage to a distant cousin. The dress and setting make her look wealthy, but her face feels real—less like a show, more like a person you might meet at a party. If you like how Sargent paints fabric and light, try looking up *impasto*—a technique where paint is laid on thickly to create texture.
One of the most sought-after painters of his era, Sargent achieved considerable critical and financial success portraying cosmopolitan members of high society on both sides of the Atlantic. Here, the artist depicts an acquaintance—a relative of the Colt firearms family—who had recently married his distant cousin Ralph. In her portrait, Curtis wears an elegant satin dress and poses as if she were welcoming guests into her palatial Venetian home. The painting apparently was a wedding gift to the couple by the artist; its inscription at the top right reads, "To Ralph and Mrs. Ralph, John S.…
Although known as John Singer Sargent today, he almost never used his middle name during his lifetime.
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Belle Époque and Edwardian-era luxury.
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