John Templeman Coolidge (Boston, 1856 - 1945)
Cecilia Beaux and John Singer Sargent’s Portrait of Charles Martin Loeffler in the Gothic Room, 1903
Platinum print, 16.2 x 13.7 cm (6 3/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
This platinum print is approximately 6.5 by 5.5 inches and depicts the artist, Cecilia Beaux, looking at John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Charles Martin Loeffler, the composer. The print is black-and-white. To the viewer’s left is a standing female figure, Cecilia Beaux, seen in profile oriented to our right. She is light-skinned and wears a large flowered hat. She is dressed in a loose dark jacket with light colored trim around her neck and lapels. She holds a large black object, perhaps a purse or shawl, in front of her. She wears a long black skirt that drapes on the ground. Her gaze is slightly downward as she looks at a portrait of the head and torso of a male figure. This painting rests on the base of a large chandelier that holds six tall white candles. The print is grainy so that some details are not distinguishable.
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 in the Gothic Room. One of these candid pictures shows the artist Cecilia Beaux admiring Sargent’s portrait of the composer Charles Martin Loeffler resting on the floor of the Gothic Room. It now hangs in the Yellow Room.