Study of Rosina Ferrara

Details

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Study of Rosina Ferrara
oil on canvas
18½ x 15 in. (47 x 38.1 cm.)

Provenance

Sir Alec Martin, United Kingdom, circa 1920s.
By descent to the present owner.

Literature

R. Ormond and E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent The Early Portraits, New Haven, Connecticut, 1998, p. 73.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of works by the Late John S. Sargent, R.A., Winter Exhibtion, January 14-March 13, 1926, no. 362, (as Mlle. L. Cagnard).

Lot Essay

The English painter Frank Hyde introduced John Singer Sargent to Rosina Ferrara during his 1878 visit to Capri. Sargent was mesmerized by Rosina, "an Ana-Capri girl, a magnificent type, about seventeen years of age, her complexion a rich nut-brown, with a mass of blue-black hair, very beautiful." (E. Charteris, John Sargent, New York, 1927, p. 48) He used her as a model in many studies and paintings such as A Capriote (1878, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts) and Capri (1878, Private collection, Tuscaloosa, Alabama).

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