John Templeman Coolidge (Boston, 1856 - 1945)
John Singer Sargent Painting Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and her daughter Rachel in the Gothic Room, 1903
Platinum print, 16.2 x 13.7 cm (6 3/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
This rectangular, vertically oriented photograph shows artist John Singer Sargent painting Mrs. Fiske Warren and her daughter, Rachel, in the Gothic Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Sargent is seen from the rear wearing dark pants and a light colored jacket. He holds a painter’s palette in his hand to our left as he paints on the canvas with his hand to our right. Both the painting and the two sitters are visible. Positioned to our left, Mrs. Fiske Warren sits in a large wooden armed chair that is on a raised platform with her feet resting on a small cushioned foot stool. She wears a frilly white long dress with a scooped neckline. There is a fuzzy white boa draped over her arm to our left that trails toward the floor. Her brown colored hair is pulled up and she looks to our far left with a faint smile on her lips. Rachel is positioned slightly behind her mother to our right. She leans in with her head resting on her mother’s shoulder. Her long brown hair falls over her shoulder to our right, and she gazes directly at the camera with a placid expression on her face. She wears light clothing that is not defined. The stained-glass windows and altarpieces featured in the Gothic Room are visible in the background. The rosette window is almost fully covered by a dark curtain.
Long Gallery
Commentary
John Singer Sargent was the first artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. During the month of April 1903 he slept in a guest room (now called the Macknight Room) and created new works of art in his temporary studio, the Gothic Room. John Templeman Coolidge, an artist and friend of Isabella’s, took several photographs of Sargent painting the portrait of Gretchen Osgood Warren and her daughter Rachel in the Gothic Room. These candid pictures show Sargent in a whirl of activity with brush and palette in hand—and a cigarette in his mouth. A dark curtain attempts to block the light coming through the stained-glass windows behind the seated pair. Surely delighted with their surroundings, Gretchen and Rachel laugh as Sargent turns to smile at the camera.