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拍品專文
Although producing fewer charcoal studies in this later period of his career, according to family lore, upon meeting the striking Audley in 1921 Sargent was compelled to produce this likeness in the medium. The commission being gifted by her husband, Fitzroy Chapman, on the occasion of the sitter’s 30th birthday. It formed part of the family’s prized collection of pictures and furniture, many from their home Cound Hall in Shropshire, although the present work hung in their London house at 55 Cadogan Gardens.
The work has an unbroken line of provenance from the sitter, to her daughter, and then by descent. The present owner reflects on her beloved grandmother:
“Grandmother Audley was an amazing woman who grew up in the late-Victorian and Edwardian era and lived life to the full; riding, hunting, skiing and driving everywhere, even delivering newspapers to Bristol in an open Bentley during the General strike of 1926! She was a very good golfer with a low handicap, playing at the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club, North Berwick, Gullane and Muirfield among others. She was a keen climber, climbing in Zermatt and Saas Fee every summer with her guide Willie Perren. During the War she said she was younger than she was and joined the ATS as an Ambulance driver. I admired and loved her so much.”
As the finest portraitist of his generation, Sargent has managed to instil this adventurous and keen spirit in the face of the sitter whilst retaining an exceptional likeness. Quoted in a letter to late Sargent expert David McKibbin Audley stated that it ‘is said to be exactly what I was like at the time’ (R. Ormond, John Singer Sargent: The Charcoal Portraits, 2025, New Haven and London, p. 105). Energetically, yet delicately handled, the picture highlights the artist working at the very height of his powers.
The work has an unbroken line of provenance from the sitter, to her daughter, and then by descent. The present owner reflects on her beloved grandmother:
“Grandmother Audley was an amazing woman who grew up in the late-Victorian and Edwardian era and lived life to the full; riding, hunting, skiing and driving everywhere, even delivering newspapers to Bristol in an open Bentley during the General strike of 1926! She was a very good golfer with a low handicap, playing at the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club, North Berwick, Gullane and Muirfield among others. She was a keen climber, climbing in Zermatt and Saas Fee every summer with her guide Willie Perren. During the War she said she was younger than she was and joined the ATS as an Ambulance driver. I admired and loved her so much.”
As the finest portraitist of his generation, Sargent has managed to instil this adventurous and keen spirit in the face of the sitter whilst retaining an exceptional likeness. Quoted in a letter to late Sargent expert David McKibbin Audley stated that it ‘is said to be exactly what I was like at the time’ (R. Ormond, John Singer Sargent: The Charcoal Portraits, 2025, New Haven and London, p. 105). Energetically, yet delicately handled, the picture highlights the artist working at the very height of his powers.