Villa Torlonia

Details

JOHN SINGER SARGENT(1856-1925)
Villa Torlonia
watercolor, gouache and pencil on paperboard
14 ¾ x 21 ¼ in. (37.5 x 54 cm.)
Executed in 1907.

Provenance

The artist.
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, New York, acquired from the above, 1909.
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, acquired from the above, 1926.
Frank W. Bayley, Boston, Massachusetts, acquired from the above, 1926.
Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts.
By descent to the present owner.

Literature

W.H. Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work, Boston, Massachusetts, 1925, p. 269.
E.W. Forbes, Annual Report, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932-33, p. 16.
R. Ormond, E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, vol. VII, New Haven, Connecticut, 2012, pp. 215, 256, 268-69, 328, 362, no. 1389, illustrated.

Exhibited

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum, Loan Exhibition of Sargent Watercolors, May-June 1933, no. 19.
New York, Adelson Galleries, Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, November 7-December 13, 1997, p. 148.
Ferrara, Italy, Palazzo dei Diamanti; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Denver, Colorado, Denver Art Museum, Sargent and Italy, September 22, 2002-September 21, 2003, pp. 130, 196, illustrated.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

In 1907, Sargent painted a number of works at the Villa Torlonia in Frascati, Italy, just southeast of Rome. The present work depicts a fountain in the lower level of the expansive gardens. An atmospheric scene dominated by rich foliage, Villa Torlonia "vibrates with a profound sense of mystery and silence, which is underlined by the soft focus and diffuse handling." (R. Ormond, E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, vol. VII, New Haven, Connecticut, 2012, p. 269)

Other works of Villa Torlonia by Sargent are in institutional collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. The present work was initially owned by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, now the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

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