1882
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Madame Paul Escudier (Louise Lefevre) is a 1882 oil by John Singer Sargent, a Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a woman sitting in a dimly lit room. She's dressed in fancy clothes, but the artist focused on the light and dark. The artist used this approach after painting working-class women in Venice. This approach is interesting because it was used for a fashionable woman. The artist applied techniques learned from painting darker scenes to this portrait. You can learn more about this style by looking into the technique of chiaroscuro.
In this depiction of Frenchwoman Louise Escudier, John Singer Sargent undercut traditional portrait conventions by prioritizing the dramatic effects of light and dark in a Parisian apartment. The picture grew out of a series of atmospheric views of working-class women in darkened interiors that the artist produced on two trips to Venice between 1880 and 1882. Undertaken in Paris shortly thereafter, this painting transforms those techniques in the portrayal of a fashionable sitter, similarly combining the gestural brushwork of the Impressionists with a heightened chiaroscuro (light and shade)…
The sitter, Louise Lefevre (1861–1950), Paris, 1882; sold through Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, to Charles Deering (1852–1927), Chicago and Miami, Nov. 1923 [“Carnegie Sells Two Sargents for $60,000,” Art News , Nov. 10, 1923, 1]; by descent to his daughter, Marion Deering McCormick (1886–1965), Chicago, 1927; by descent to her son, Brooks McCormick (1917–2006), Chicago, 1965; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2007.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Twenty–second Annual International Exhibition of Paintings , Apr. 26–June 17, 1923, cat. 60. Art Institute of Chicago, John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age , July 1–Sept. 30, 2018, cat. 13. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sargent and Paris , Apr. 27–Aug. 3, 2025, no cat. no.; Paris, Musée d'Orsay, John Singer Sargent. Éblouir Paris , Sept. 22, 2025–Jan. 11, 2026, cat. 95.
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.
See the richer artist page
