John Singer Sargent

Hylda, Almina and Conway, Children of Asher Wertheimer

1905

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In Tate Britain

Spotlights: John Singer Sargent's Wertheimer Family Portraits

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Artist: John Singer Sargent 1856–1925
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1880 × 1333 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the widow and family of Asher Wertheimer in accordance with his wishes 1922
Reference: N03712

Display caption

This is a portrait of three of the children of the art dealer, Asher Wertheimer. It is is one of a series of twelve that Sargent painted of the Wertheimer family. The stone terrace and urn in the background recall the style of eighteenth - century portraiture in the grand manner designed to confirm aristocratic status. Here, the tradition is adopted by a wealthy, middle-class Jewish family. The riding habit and crop worn by Almina (on the right) and the spaniel with Conway (in the centre provide) also refer to aristocratic pursuits.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

N03712 HYLDA, ALMINA AND CONWAY, CHILDREN OF ASHER WERTHEIMER 1905

Inscr. ‘John S. Sargent 1905’ t.r.
Canvas, 74×52 1/2 (188×133).
Presented to the National Gallery by the widow and family of Asher Wertheimer in accordance with his wishes 1922; transferred 1926.
Coll: As for N03705.
Lit: Robert Ross, ‘The Wertheimer Sargents’ in Art Journal, 1911, p.8; Downes, 1925, p.200; Charteris, 1927, p.270 (erroneously recorded under the year 1902); Mount, 1955, pp.225, 437 (as 1902); McKibbin, 1956, p.130; Mount, 1957, pp.187, 346.

Painted in 1905, with the terrace of Eustace Wilding's house at Stoke Poges as background (McKibbin, loc. cit., and Mr John Mathias, 8 June 1961), the group includes the third eldest daughter, Hylda, and the fifth daughter, Almina (Mrs Antonio Pandelli Fachiri, 1886-c. 1928–9, whose first name has sometimes been printed as ‘Alna’), in a dark riding habit. The third figure is of Conway, later Conway Joseph Conway, Q.C., Bencher of the Inner Temple, the third of the Wertheimer sons, who was called to the Bar in 1906. He was born in 1881 and died in November 1953.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II