Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
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>
W Graham Robertson
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: mammals
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
author
clothing and personal items
coat
dog - non-specific
domestic
fashion
individuals: male
interior - non-specific
interiors
lifestyle and culture
literary
man
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
Robertson, W. Graham
society
standing
work and occupations
<p>Graham Robertson was an author, painter and collector who bequeathed to the Tate Gallery more than twenty paintings and drawings. He was twenty-eight when he posed for this portrait together with his eleven-year-old poodle, Mouton. John Singer Sargent presents Robertson as a London dandy, wearing a fur-collared full-length coat and leaning on a jade-handled cane. In his autobiography Robertson recalled that Sargent had insisted he wear the long coat even though it was summer. He also tried to make Robertson look as thin and youthful as possible.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2007</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
3 November 2003 – 19 January 2004
2004-01-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-03
Portraits of Artists
Collection based display
15 November 2003 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
15 November 2003 – 8 February 2004
2004-02-08
2003-11-15
High Museum of Art (Atlanta, USA)
6 March 2004 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
2004-03-06
Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, USA)
http://www.dia.org
2003-11-15
After Whistler
Loan-out
18 July 2009 – 11 October 2009
2009-10-11
18 July 2009 – 11 October 2009
2009-10-11
2009-07-18
National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK)
2009-07-18
Imagining Spain: From Goya to Picasso, The British and Spain
Loan-out
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
31 January 2012 – 12 August 2012
2012-08-12
2012-01-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-01-31
Migrations
Exhibition
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
20 April 2018 – 15 July 2018
2018-07-15
20 April 2018 – 15 July 2018
2018-07-15
2018-04-20
Kunsthaus Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland)
http://www.kunsthaus.ch/
2018-04-20
Fashion Drive - Extreme Clothes in the Arts
Loan-out
16 February 2019 – 2 June 2019
2019-06-02
16 February 2019 – 2 June 2019
2019-06-02
2019-02-16
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara, Italy)
2019-02-16
Boldini and Fashion
Loan-out
19 March 2022 – 7 January 2024
2024-01-07
19 March 2022 – 6 November 2022
2022-11-06
2022-03-19
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
2022-03-19
Fashioning Masculinities
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
W. Graham Robertson
support: 2305 × 1187 mm
frame: 2490 × 1360 × 90 mm
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940
<p>Graham Robertson was an author, painter and collector who bequeathed to the Tate Gallery more than twenty paintings and drawings. He was twenty-eight when he posed for this portrait together with his eleven-year-old poodle, Mouton. John Singer Sargent presents Robertson as a London dandy, wearing a fur-collared full-length coat and leaning on a jade-handled cane. In his autobiography Robertson recalled that Sargent had insisted he wear the long coat even though it was summer. He also tried to make Robertson look as thin and youthful as possible.</p>

Display caption
2007-07-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><span>The painting is technique is in general typical of Sargent’s portrait painting. The canvas weight is of the heavier type used by him but the ground colour is typical. The figure has been characteristically developed with broad planes of colour, which are then refined to determine the contours and outline of the shapes. The fine horizontal cracking found in many of his portraits may indicate the rolling of the canvas at the priming stage. The excess canvas visible at the back facilitates his not infrequent habit of altering the visual dimension of the subject but in this case the canvas only appears to have been stretched once. No drawing directly on the canvas is apparent and would not be expected. Preparatory drawings on paper may exist but these would not have slavishly determined the pose but simply have captured its essence. The changes in composition of this work are again typical of Sargent, for example repositioning of the feet, redefining of the coat contour making the figure seem even more thin and vertical.</span>
<br/>
<br/><span>Jacqueline Ridge</span>
<br/><span>August 1998</span>
<br/>
<br/></p>

Technique and condition
2003-10-10T00:00:00
technique-and-condition
TECHNIQUE_AND_CONDITION_TEXT
<p><b>N05066</b> W. GRAHAM ROBERTSON 1894</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘John S. Sargent 1894’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 90 3/4×46 3/4 (235×118·5).
<br/>Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940.
<br/><i>Coll:</i>
Painted at the artist's request in summer 1894.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1895 (503); Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1896 (1134); Society of Portrait Painters, New Gallery, 1907 (61); <i>Paintings by British Artists</i>, Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, August–September 1908 (26, repr. p.6); <i>Ausstellung Amerikanischer Kunst</i>, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, March–April 1910 (60, repr. in illus. supplement); R.A., winter 1926 (417, repr. <i>Illustrations of the Sargent Exhibition</i>, p.21); Tate Gallery, June–October 1926.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Downes, 1925, pp.39, 173; Charteris, 1927, pp.140, 154, 174, 265, repr. facing p.154; W. Graham Robertson, <i>Time Was</i>, 1931, pp.233–8, 241, repr. as frontispiece; Mount, 1955, pp.200–2, 434; McKibbin, 1956, p.119; Mount, 1957, pp.165–7, 343, repr. facing p.226
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Wood, n.d., pl.4 (in colour); Manson and Meynell, 1927, n.p.</p>
<p>Walford Graham Robertson (1866–1948), <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> 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/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> painter, book illustrator, theatrical costume designer, playwright and collector. He presented and bequeathed to the Tate Gallery over twenty <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> 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> from his collection of works by William Blake, as well as the portrait of his grandmother, Mrs Greatorex, by Andrew Geddes, and other works.</p>
<p>This portrait shows him as a young man with his eleven-year-old poodle ‘Mouton’ of the St Jean de Luz breed. Sargent had begun painting a portrait of the sitter's mother and also one of his friend the actress Ada Rehan. It was through Miss Rehan that the artist let it be known to Graham Robertson how much he wanted to paint him in his elegant long overcoat. Robertson agreed to this, but the hot summer weather made it impossible for him to wear such a thick garment unless he stripped himself of most of his other clothes. This paring down accentuated the slimness of his figure to the delight of Sargent, who draped the coat even more closely about him.</p>
<p>Sargent did not complete the portrait until after his return from France later in the year and had meanwhile seen for the first time Whistler's recently finished portrait of Comte Robert de Montesquiou, on exhibition at the Paris <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>Salon</span></a>. He was afraid that people would remark on the coincidental similarity in pose adopted by the two artists. An oil sketch on <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>, 36×28 in. (painted area, 15 1/2×28 in.), for this portrait was discovered under another canvas of ‘Mrs Russell Cooke’ (R.A. 1895 (647)) in August 1964 and lent anonymously to Birmingham Art Gallery, September–October 1964 (hors catalogue).</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: postures and motions adults animals: mammals artist, painter arts and entertainment author clothing and personal items coat dog - non-specific domestic fashion individuals: male interior - non-specific interiors lifestyle and culture literary man named individuals objects people portraits Robertson, W. Graham society standing work and occupations