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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-singer-sargent-475" aria-label="More by John Singer Sargent" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Singer Sargent</a>
Vernon Lee
Bequeathed by Miss Vernon Lee through Miss Cooper Willis 1935
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<p>Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the writer Violet Paget (1856-1935), best known for her books on Italian Renaissance art. Sargent had known her since childhood when their families had been neighbours in Nice, and she remained a friend all his life. This 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'.From the late 1870s Sargent was amongst those artists trained in Paris who made Impressionism an international style, blended with the technique and attitudes of old masters such as Velasquez. In this sketch his free brushwork makes for a brilliant illusion, and suggests the ambiguity of this author who adopted a male name.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 March 2006 – 5 February 2007
2007-02-05
18 March 2006 – 18 June 2006
2006-06-18
2006-03-18
Newark Museum (Newark, USA)
24 July 2006 – 15 October 2006
2006-10-15
2006-07-24
McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, USA)
4 November 2006 – 5 February 2007
2007-02-05
2006-11-04
Frick Art and Historical Center (Pittsburgh, USA)
http://www.frickart.com/
2006-03-18
Off the Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase and Sargent
Loan-out
24 November 2007 – 4 May 2008
2008-05-04
24 November 2007 – 4 May 2008
2008-05-04
2007-11-24
Museo di Santa Giulia (Brescia, Italy)
2007-11-24
America! Storie di pittura dal Nuovo Mondo
Loan-out
12 May 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
12 May 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2009-05-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-05-12
Lawrence and Sargent
Collection based display
5 April 2011 – 9 October 2011
2011-10-09
5 April 2011 – 26 June 2011
2011-06-26
2011-04-05
Centro del Carmen (Valencia, Spain)
19 July 2011 – 9 October 2011
2011-10-09
2011-07-19
CaixaForum Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www3.lacaixa.es
2011-04-05
Portraits of the Belle Epoque
Loan-out
2 March 2012 – 15 July 2012
2012-07-15
2 March 2012 – 15 July 2012
2012-07-15
2012-03-02
Palazzo Strozzi (Florence, Italy)
2012-03-02
Americans in Florence
Loan-out
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
5 February 2015 – 4 October 2015
2015-10-04
5 February 2015 – 25 May 2015
2015-05-25
2015-02-05
National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.npg.org.uk
29 June 2015 – 4 October 2015
2015-10-04
2015-06-29
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2015-02-05
John Singer Sargent: Artists, Writers, Actors and Musicians
Loan-out
5 April 2017 – 1 October 2017
2017-10-01
5 April 2017 – 1 October 2017
2017-10-01
2017-04-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-04-05
Queer British Art
Exhibition
4 October 2018 – 13 January 2019
2019-01-13
4 October 2018 – 13 January 2019
2019-01-13
2018-10-04
Nationalmuseum (Stockholm, Sweden)
http://www.nationalmuseum.se
2018-10-04
John Singer Sargent
Loan-out
8 October 2023 – 7 July 2024
2024-07-07
8 October 2023 – 15 January 2024
2024-01-15
2023-10-08
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
21 February 2024 – 7 July 2024
2024-07-07
2024-02-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-10-08
Sargent and Fashion
Exhibition
8 October 2023 – 15 January 2024
2024-01-15
8 October 2023 – 15 January 2024
2024-01-15
2023-10-08
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2023-10-08
Sargent and Fashion
Loan-out
21 April 2025 – 11 January 2026
2026-01-11
21 April 2025 – 3 August 2025
2025-08-03
2025-04-21
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
22 September 2025 – 11 January 2026
2026-01-11
2025-09-22
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2025-04-21
Sargent and Paris
Loan-out
1 February 2027 – 31 May 2027
2027-05-31
1 February 2027 – 31 May 2027
2027-05-31
2027-02-01
Fundacíon Mapfre (Madrid, Spain)
2027-02-01
BEYOND THE STEREOTYPE: SARGENT'S VISION OF SPAIN
Loan-out
Vernon Lee
support: 537 × 432 mm
frame: 750 × 640 × 88 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Vernon Lee through Miss Cooper Willis 1935
<p>Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the writer Violet Paget (1856-1935), best known for her books on Italian <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/renaissance" title="Glossary definition for 'Renaissance'"><span>Renaissance</span></a> art. Sargent had known her since childhood when their families had been neighbours in Nice, and she remained a friend all his life. This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> 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'.<br/>From the late 1870s Sargent was amongst those artists trained in Paris who made <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/impressionism" title="Glossary definition for 'Impressionism'"><span>Impressionism</span></a> an international style, blended with the technique and attitudes of old masters such as Velasquez. In this sketch his free brushwork makes for a brilliant illusion, and suggests the ambiguity of this author who adopted a male name.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04787</b> VERNON LEE 1881</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘To my friend Violet John S. Sargent’ incised into the paint t.r.
<br/>Canvas, 21 1/8×17 (53·75×43·25).
<br/>Bequeathed by Miss Vernon Lee through Miss Cooper Willis 1935.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Given by the artist to the sitter 1881 and bequeathed by her to the Tate Gallery through her executrix Miss Irene Cooper Willis 1935.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Copley Hall, Boston, February–March 1899 (106); R.A., winter 1926 (361), as ‘Portrait of a Lady’ (repr. <i>Illustrations of the Sargent Exhibition</i>, p.20); Tate Gallery, June–October 1926, as ‘Portrait of a Lady’.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Downes, 1925, p.295 (in the section devoted to drawings); Charteris, 1927, pp.137, 250, 258, repr. facing p.236; Mount, 1955, pp.94, 429, repr. p.144; McKibbin, 1956, p.114; Mount, 1957, pp.80, 337; Peter Gunn, <i>Vernon Lee: Violet Paget 1856–1935</i>, 1964, pp.78, 90.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1958, p.95 (in colour).</p>
<p>‘Vernon Lee’ was the pseudonym of the author Violet Paget (1856–1935), whose reputation was established by her books on Italian <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/renaissance" title="Glossary definition for 'Renaissance'"><span>Renaissance</span></a> art, travel and fiction. Sargent had known her since childhood when their respective families had been neighbours in Nice. Miss Paget, in her tribute to Sargent (Charteris, p.238), gave the date of their first meeting as winter 1866–7, but Charteris, McKibbin and Mount all speak of 1862 as the year in which the Sargents first settled in Nice, and Miss Paget's memory may have been at fault. Mount has confirmed (letter of 15 May 1963) that the dates of the Sargent family's various peregrinations may be deduced from the hundred or so letters of Dr Fitz William Sargent in the possession of the family. This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> was done in 1881 when both sitter and painter were in London. There are two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> of the same sitter, both of 1889, one in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the other in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard (sketch-book, 1937.7.26, No.3).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults author clothing and personal items individuals: female Lee, Vernon literary named individuals objects Paget, Violet people portraits spectacles woman work and occupations