Gallery 28

Study of Architecture, Florence

John Singer Sargent, Study of Architecture, Florence, ca. 1910
How do artists use architecture to describe their relationship with a place?

In this view of Florence, Italy, Sargent places the viewer in front of the portico of the Uffizi Gallery. We look through the columns and archways towards the lush Boboli Gardens across the Arno River. Sargent collapses the distance between these two landmarks, creating a single place where the morning sun illuminates the day, bathing the city's great artistic and natural treasures in a golden glow.

Study of Architecture, Florence

John Singer Sargent, Study of Architecture, Florence, ca. 1910
How do artists use architecture to describe their relationship with a place?

In this view of Florence, Italy, Sargent places the viewer in front of the portico of the Uffizi Gallery. We look through the columns and archways towards the lush Boboli Gardens across the Arno River. Sargent collapses the distance between these two landmarks, creating a single place where the morning sun illuminates the day, bathing the city's great artistic and natural treasures in a golden glow.

Study of Architecture, Florence

John Singer Sargent, Study of Architecture, Florence, ca. 1910
How do artists use architecture to describe their relationship with a place?

In this view of Florence, Italy, Sargent places the viewer in front of the portico of the Uffizi Gallery. We look through the columns and archways towards the lush Boboli Gardens across the Arno River. Sargent collapses the distance between these two landmarks, creating a single place where the morning sun illuminates the day, bathing the city's great artistic and natural treasures in a golden glow.

Elizabeth Platt Jencks

Elizabeth Platt Jencks by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

How do the people in your life inspire you?

Dewing painted this portrait of Elizabeth Platt Jencks at the artists’ colony in Cornish, New Hampshire, which he helped establish. When he began this portrait, he had just returned from traveling in Europe, where he toured galleries and shared a London studio with James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Whistler’s influence is evident in Dewing’s fluid brushstrokes and muted tonality. Jencks stands against a mottled gray ground in a firm and confident pose, beautiful and strong.

Elizabeth Platt Jencks

Elizabeth Platt Jencks by Thomas Wilmer Dewing

How do the people in your life inspire you?

Dewing painted this portrait of Elizabeth Platt Jencks at the artists’ colony in Cornish, New Hampshire, which he helped establish. When he began this portrait, he had just returned from traveling in Europe, where he toured galleries and shared a London studio with James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Whistler’s influence is evident in Dewing’s fluid brushstrokes and muted tonality. Jencks stands against a mottled gray ground in a firm and confident pose, beautiful and strong.

Helen of California [Helen Wills]

Helen of California [Helen Wills] by Haig Patigian

What shapes our understanding of beauty?

Born in Centerville, California, Helen Newington Wills rose to fame in women’s singles tennis competitions during the 1920s and 1930s by winning multiple championships in the United States, France, and England. Athletic, intelligent, and artistic, Wills epitomized what Patigian regarded as the California Woman—a new type of classic feminine beauty. In this portrait, which he called Helen of California, he sought to model his subject as the embodiment of that ideal.

Helen of California [Helen Wills]

Helen of California [Helen Wills] by Haig Patigian

What shapes our understanding of beauty?

Born in Centerville, California, Helen Newington Wills rose to fame in women’s singles tennis competitions during the 1920s and 1930s by winning multiple championships in the United States, France, and England. Athletic, intelligent, and artistic, Wills epitomized what Patigian regarded as the California Woman—a new type of classic feminine beauty. In this portrait, which he called Helen of California, he sought to model his subject as the embodiment of that ideal.

California

California by Hiram Powers

How would you personify California?

In 1850, inspired by the California Gold Rush and the success of his sculpture Greek Slave (ca. 1873), Powers modeled a standing female nude, which he called El Dorado. Retitled California and cut in marble in 1858, the full figure was the first sculpture by an American artist to be acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This bust is the first of four known versions, and it was acquired by M. H. de Young and presented to this collection in 1916.

California

California by Hiram Powers

How would you personify California?

In 1850, inspired by the California Gold Rush and the success of his sculpture Greek Slave (ca. 1873), Powers modeled a standing female nude, which he called El Dorado. Retitled California and cut in marble in 1858, the full figure was the first sculpture by an American artist to be acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This bust is the first of four known versions, and it was acquired by M. H. de Young and presented to this collection in 1916.

O in Persian Costume

O in Persian Costume by Robert Henri
What is the impact of color here?

Here the artist’s wife wears a glimmering headdress and tunic laden with beadwork. The sharp color contrasts, variations in texture, and changeable brushwork create a dynamism that seems to describe the subject herself.