Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<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>
Misses Hunter
Presented by Mrs Charles Hunter through the Art Fund 'in memory of a great artist and a great friend' 1926
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: mammals
Cary-Elwes, Kathleen
clothing and personal items
deer
dog - non-specific
domestic
fan
Grant-Lawson, Sylvia, Lady
groups
Hunter sisters
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
named families
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
sitting
Williamson, Phyllis
woman
<p>Sargent was commissioned to paint Kathleen, Cary Phyllis and Sylvia Hunter by their mother Mary, who was a leading Edwardian society hostess and close friend both of Sargent and Rodin. The fan held by the centre figure echoes the overall sweep of the young women’s full skirts in what is a highly innovative composition. The sisters are seated on a ‘confidante’ circular sofa, and are shown with their dog Crack. On seeing this picture when it was first exhibited Rodin declared that Sargent was ‘the van Dyck of our times’. This is plausible, for while having absorbed the influences of impressionism, Sargent’s work was firmly and consciously rooted in the portrait traditions of van Dyck and Velázquez.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
19 June 2006 – 4 December 2006
2006-12-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-06-19
The Swagger Portrait
Collection based display
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
The Misses Hunter
support: 2292 × 2299 mm

Presented by Mrs Charles Hunter through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 'in memory of a great artist and a great friend' 1926
<p>Sargent was commissioned to paint Kathleen, Cary Phyllis and Sylvia Hunter by their mother Mary, who was a leading Edwardian society hostess and close friend both of Sargent and Rodin.  The fan held by the centre figure echoes the overall sweep of the young women’s full skirts in what is a highly innovative composition.  The sisters are seated on a ‘confidante’ circular sofa, and are shown with their dog Crack.  On seeing this picture when it was first exhibited Rodin declared that Sargent was ‘the van Dyck of our times’.  This is plausible, for while having absorbed the influences of impressionism, Sargent’s work was firmly and consciously rooted in the portrait traditions of van Dyck and Velázquez. </p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04180</b> THE MISSES HUNTER 1902</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘John S. Sargent 1902’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 90 1/4×90 1/2 (229×230).
<br/>Presented by Mrs Charles Hunter through the National Art-Collections Fund ‘in memory of a great artist and a great friend’ 1926.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Commissioned from the artist by Mrs Charles Hunter <i>c.</i> 1900.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1902 (229); Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1903 (1167); <i>73rd Annual Exhibition</i>, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, January–March 1904 (53, repr. facing p.8); <i>Louisiana Purchase Exposition</i>, St Louis, April–November 1904 (Art Palace, United States section, 670); Society of American Artists, New York, March–May 1904 (327); <i>International Exhibition</i>, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, October–December 1925 (275); R.A., winter 1926 (397); York, March–May 1926 (41); Tate Gallery, June–October 1926.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> <i>Art Journal</i>, 1902, p.210; Downes, 1925, pp.57–8, 197; Charteris, 1927, p.269; Dame Ethel Smyth, <i>As Time Went on...</i>, 1936, p.210; Mount, 1955, pp.232, 382, 437; McKibbin, 1956, p.102; Mount, 1957, pp.194, 315, 346.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> N. Pousette-Dart, 1924, n.p.; Manson and Meynell, 1927, n.p.</p>
<p>Finished in the artist's studio at Tite Street, Chelsea, in 1902, this triple <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 begun at Wharncliffe House some two or three years previously, according to a reviewer in the <i>Art Journal (loc. cit.)</i>. On the back of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> there is a painted inscription (possibly in Sargent's hand): ‘The Misses Hunter Daughters of Charles Hunter Hill Hall Epping Kathleen married L. Cary-Elwes of Wolland [?] Cary Phyllis married F. C. Williamson son of Sir Hedworth Williamson Sylvia married Sir Grant-Lawson Bart Middlethorpe Lodge York.’ Charles Hunter was a wealthy colliery owner, whose wife became one of the leading hostesses in fashionable society of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edwardian" title="Glossary definition for 'Edwardian'"><span>Edwardian</span></a> era. Her sister, Dame Ethel Smyth, recalls (<i>op. cit.</i>) that Kathleen (‘Kitty’) Hunter was the eldest daughter, Phyllis the next eldest, and Sylvia the youngest. The portrait was particularly admired by Auguste Rodin; when he saw it after the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> banquet in 1902 he termed the painter the ‘Van Dyck of our times!’ (see also <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sargent-mrs-charles-hunter-n04469" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04469</span></a>).</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
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults animals: mammals Cary-Elwes, Kathleen clothing and personal items deer dog - non-specific domestic fan Grant-Lawson, Sylvia, Lady groups Hunter sisters individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors named families named individuals objects people portraits sitting Williamson, Phyllis woman