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Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis

1898

John Singer Sargent

(American, 1856-1925)

America, 19th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 249 x 134 x 9.5 cm (98 1/16 x 52 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 219.3 x 104.8 cm (86 5/16 x 41 1/4 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1998.168

Location

208 American Gilded Age and Realism

Fun Fact

Elegant and poised in her silk gown, Lisa Colt Curtis does not directly engage the viewer. Sargent's portrait seems to preserve the moment just before she steps forward to greet guests.

Description

One of the most sought-after painters of his era, Sargent achieved considerable critical and financial success portraying cosmopolitan members of high society on both sides of the Atlantic. Here, the artist depicts an acquaintance—an heir to the Colt firearms fortune—who had recently married his distant cousin Ralph. In her portrait, Curtis wears an elegant satin dress and poses as if she were welcoming guests into her palatial Venetian home. The painting apparently was a wedding gift to the couple by the artist; its inscription at the top right reads, "To Ralph and Mrs. Ralph, John S. Sargent 1898."

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Inscriptions

Inscription

Inscribed: To Ralph and Mrs. Ralph, John S. Sargent 1898

Provenance

1998-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1998

(Christie’s, New York, Dec. 29, 1998, private treaty sale to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Probably 1973 - probably 1998

Patricia Curtis Viganò, Venice, Italy; Lisa Marjorie Curtis de Beaumont, France; and Ralph D. Curtis, Venice, Italy

Probably 1936 - probably 1973

Ralph Wormeley Curtis, Jr. [1909-1973] Venice, Italy, and Paris, France, by descent to his children Patricia Curtis Viganò, Lisa Marjorie Curtis de Beaumont, and Ralph D. Curtis

Probably 1933 - probably 1936

Sylvia Curtis Steinert [1899-1981], Paris and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France, to her brother, Ralph Wormeley Curtis, Jr. ¹

1898 - probably 1933

Ralph Wormeley Curtis [1854-1922] and Lisette De Wolf Colt Curtis [1867-1933], Paris and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France, probably by descent to their daughter Sylvia Curtis Steinert ²

Provenance Footnotes

¹The painting apparently resided in the Villa Sylvia, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, until Sylvia Curtis Steinert sold the property upon her divorce in 1936. Subsequently it was transferred to her brother, who resided in the family home at the Palazzo Barbaro, Venice; he is listed as the painting’s owner when it was published in 1956 and 1970. According to Patricia Curtis Viganò, the art in the Palazzo Barbaro was crated and stored at the Doge’s Palace in Venice for safekeeping during the Second World War.

²The painting, inscribed “To Ralph and Mrs. Ralph / John S. Sargent 1898,” was a wedding gift from Sargent, Ralph Wormeley Curtis’s distant cousin. The portrait was photographed in situ at the Villa Sylvia, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat around 1927.

Provenance Citations

Cox, E.H.M., “Houses & Gardens of the Riviera: Villa Sylvia, Cap Ferrat, The Home of Mrs. Lisa Curtis, Country Life 61 (January 15, 1927): 91

Downes, William Howe. John S. Sargent: His Life and Work. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1925.

McKibben, David, Sargent’s Boston, with an Essay & a Biographical Summary & A Complete Check List of Sargent’s Portraits. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1956.

Ormond, Richard. John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

Eric Widing, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, March 20, 2013, in CMA curatorial file.

Berendt, John. The City of Falling Angels. 2005.

Purchase receipt for Christie's private treaty sale, Dec. 29, 1998, Director Files, Robert Bergman, Box 8, file 8, Ingalls Library, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art, “Little-Known Masterpiece by John Singer Sargent Acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art,” November 27, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterworks on Loan: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Cleveland Museum of Art: July Through September 2016. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Reproduced: p. 13

Exhibition history

Ferrara, Italy, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Sargent and Italy (22 September 2002-6 January 2003); traveled to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2 February-11 May 2003); to Denver, Denver Art Museum (28 June-21 September 2003); illus. p. 165.

Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle (21 April-15 August 2004); illus. fig. 48, p. 73, listed p. 275 as Lisa Curtis; pp. 70-75.

Sargent and Italy. Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara (Galleria d'Arte Moderna et Contemporanea) (September 29, 2002-January 6, 2003); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (February 9-May 11, 2003); Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (June 21-September 14, 2003).

Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (organizer) (April 20-August 15, 2004).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.168|author=John Singer Sargent|year=1898|access-date=08 August 2020|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis

Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis

John Singer Sargent

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