has abandoned none of his subtlety, he has abandoned his mannerisms, and has been content to make a beautiful picture of a charming subject, under conditions of repose." The writer also felt it was a "masterpiece". Other exhibitions it featured in were at Boston's Copley Hall in 1899 and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh during 1924. The painting still hangs in its original antique French rococo frame. It is not known if this is the same frame Sargent described in an 1893 letter to Sir Andrew: "Today I saw an old frame which I think might suit the picture... It is expensive, I think £20, and unless the picture should look remarkably well in it, hardly worth the money". According to the Scottish National Gallery, "the cumulative cost of sustaining celebrity with style obliged Lady Agnew to sell her own portrait". The painting was acquired with assistance from the Cowan Smith Bequest Fund in 1925. It was retitled as Lady Agnew of Lochnaw at her request (formerly it had been titled simply Lady Agnew). There are two letters from her about the sale of the painting in the gallery's archives. The first of these indicates that she had decided against letting it go to an American in New York and had offered it to the gallery for £4,000. At the time Noel Agnew commissioned the portrait, Sargent's fee for a three-quarter length portrait was about £500. After the gallery was extended around 1978, the additional area allowed space for the portrait to be displayed. References Notes Citations Bibliography Paintings by John Singer Sargent 1892 paintings Paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland 19th-century portraits Portraits of women