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>
Mrs Charles Hunter
Presented by Mrs Charles Hunter through the Art Fund 'in memory of a great artist and a great friend' 1929
actions: expressive
adults
cloak
clothing and personal items
hat
Hunter, Mary
individuals: female
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
smiling
Smyth, Mary
woman
painting oil paint canvas
3 October 2006 – 13 May 2007
2007-05-13
3 October 2006 – 8 January 2007
2007-01-08
2006-10-03
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)
3 October 2006 – 8 January 2007
2007-01-08
2006-10-03
Fundación Caja (Casa de las Alhajas) (Madrid, Spain)
12 February 2007 – 13 May 2007
2007-05-13
2007-02-12
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France)
2006-10-03
Sargent/Sorolla
Loan-out
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
Mrs Charles Hunter
support: 1480 × 895 mm
frame: 1678 × 1105 × 100 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' 1929
<p><b>N04469</b> MRS CHARLES HUNTER 1898</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘John S. Sargent’ t.l. and ‘1898’ t.r.
<br/>Canvas, 58 1/4×35 1/4 (148×89·5).
<br/>Presented by Mrs Charles Hunter through the National Art-Collections Fund 1929.
<br/><i>Coll:</i>
Presumably commissioned from the artist by the sitter 1898.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
Copley Hall, Boston, February–March 1899 (9); R.A., 1899 (18); <i>Special Inaugural Exhibition</i>, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1904 (178); Venice Biennale, 1907 (English Pavilion, 27); <i>53rd Autumn Exhibition</i>, Liverpool, September–December 1925 (144); R.A., winter 1926 (303); York, March–May 1926 (30); Tate Gallery, June–October 1926.
<br/><i>Lit:</i>
<i>Art Journal</i>, 1899, p.178; Downes, 1925, pp.52, 186–7; Charteris, 1927, pp.168, 267; <i>N.A.C.F. Report 1929</i>, 1930, p.44, repr. facing p.44; Mount, 1955, pp.214–15, 436, repr. p.144; McKibbin, 1956, p.102; Mount, 1957, pp.177–8, 345.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Manson and Meynell, 1927, n.p.; National Gallery, Millbank [Tate Gallery], <i>Review of the Acquisitions</i>, 1927–29, 1930, p.45.</p>
<p>Sargent first met Mrs Charles Hunter (<i>née</i> Mary Smyth) in 1895 and the two became firm friends; indeed, Mrs Hunter seems to have been the artist's confidante. Three years later, in 1898, Sargent painted her <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>. She was famous for her <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>salons</span></a></i> in London and house parties at Hill Hall, Epping, where many literary and artistic figures foregathered (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-the-misses-hunter-n04180" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04180</span></a>). A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> portrait of 1902 was lent by Mrs Hunter to the Sargent Memorial exhibition in 1926 (119). A marble head and shoulders portrait of her carved by Rodin in 1906 is also in the Tate (see Ronald Alley, <i>Foreign <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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Paintings</span></a>, <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> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>Sculptures</span></a></i>, Tate Gallery, 1959, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rodin-mrs-charles-hunter-n04116" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04116</span></a>).</p>
<p>The <i>Art Journal</i> reviewer saw an echo of Rubens's ‘Chapeau de Paille’ in Sargent's treatment and pose of his sitter in this portrait.</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
actions: expressive adults cloak clothing and personal items hat Hunter, Mary individuals: female named individuals objects people portraits smiling Smyth, Mary woman