Portrait of Madame Paul Poirson

Portrait of Madame Paul Poirson was painted by John Singer Sargent in 1885. The work depicts Seymourina Cuthbertson, the natural daughter of the 4th Marquess of Hertford and Madame Oger, who married Paul Poirson, brother of artist Maurice Poirson. The painting was created in the studio at 41, boulevard Berthier shortly before the controversy surrounding Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X following its 1884 Salon exhibition.

It entered the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts after being sold in 1973 by the sitter’s grandson.

The provenance traces ownership from the sitter to her daughter and then to her grandson, who disposed of the work in 1973 to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The painting is currently held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. It remained in the possession of the sitter, Seymourina Poirson, and subsequently passed to her daughter and then her grandson. In 1973, the grandson sold the work to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Painted in 1885, the portrait belongs to the period when John Singer Sargent had established himself as one of the leading portraitists of the Parisian beau monde. The sitter, Seymourina Cuthbertson, was the natural daughter of the 4th Marquess of Hertford and the wife of Paul Poirson, who owned the studio at 41 boulevard Berthier to which Sargent moved in 1883. The work was executed just before the scandal surrounding Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, exhibited at the Salon of 1884.

According to family tradition, the painting, like the 1884 portrait of her daughter Suzanne, was given as payment in lieu of rent, though no documentation has been found to confirm this.

The portrait is also said to have inspired Carolus-Duran's 1887 Portrait of Princess Anna Obolenskaya. It passed from the sitter to her daughter and grandson, who sold it to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1973. The work is catalogued in Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray's study of Sargent's early portraits.

The portrait is noted for its potential influence on the French painter Carolus-Duran, who reportedly drew inspiration from it for his 1887 work depicting Princess Anna Obolenskaja. While family tradition suggests the painting was created as payment for rent, no documentary evidence has been found to substantiate this claim. The work remained within the sitter's family, passing to her daughter and subsequently her grandson, before being sold to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1973.

Today, it is recognized as a significant example of Sargent's early portraiture among the Parisian elite prior to the controversy surrounding his Portrait of Madame X.

John Singer Sargent completed this oil portrait in 1893, presenting Seymourina Poirson against a muted green backdrop. The composition captures the sitter in a light, flowing dress accented with lace, a black collar, and a delicate flower brooch, while a fur shawl rests on her left arm and her right hand rests on her hip.