John Singer Sargent

Hylda, Daughter of Asher and Mrs Wertheimer

1901

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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: 2146 × 1435 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the widow and family of Asher Wertheimer in accordance with his wishes 1922
Reference: N03707

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Hylda was the third daughter of the wealthy art dealer Asher Wertheimer, who had commissioned Sargent to paint twelve portraits of his family. Sargent''s reputation ensured that such portraits were a token of wealth and social standing. The portrait of Hylda is in the grand manner of the old masters, and great care is given to the depiction of the different luxurious textures of her clothing. Sargent tried to dissuade Hylda from wearing her pince-nez, which undermine this illusion, but they were retained at her insistence.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

N03707 HYLDA, DAUGHTER OF ASHER AND MRS WERTHEIMER 1901

Inscr. ‘John S. Sargent 1901’ b.l.
Canvas, 84 1/2×56 1/2 (215·5×143·5).
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: Downes, 1925, pp.46, 200, repr. facing p.216; Mount, 1955, pp.225, 436; McKibbin, 1956, p.130; Mount, 1957, pp.187, 345.

Never exhibited, this portrait is contemporaneous with N03708. The sitter, who afterwards became Mrs H. Wilson-Young (1878–1938?), was the third eldest daughter of the Wertheimer family (information from Mr John Mathias, 8 June 1961).

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