id: 160289
accession number: 1998.168
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.168
updated: 2021-03-27 12:16:36.750000
Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis, 1898. John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925). 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1998.168
title: Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1898
creation date earliest: 1898
creation date latest: 1898
current location: 208 American Gilded Age and Realism
creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
copyright:
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culture: America, 19th century
technique: oil on canvas
department: American Painting and Sculpture
collection: American - Painting
type: Painting
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925) - artist
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measurements: 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.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Inscribed: To Ralph and Mrs. Ralph, John S. Sargent 1898
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Sargent and Italy
opening date: 2002-09-29T00:00:00
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).
title: Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle
opening date: 2004-04-20T00:00:00
Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (organizer) (April 20-August 15, 2004).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* 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.
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PROVENANCE
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
date: 1998-
footnotes:
citations:
(Christie’s, New York, Dec. 29, 1998, private treaty sale to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
date: 1998
footnotes:
citations:
Patricia Curtis Viganò, Venice, Italy; Lisa Marjorie Curtis de Beaumont, France; and Ralph D. Curtis, Venice, Italy
date: Probably 1973 - probably 1998
footnotes:
citations:
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
date: Probably 1936 - probably 1973
footnotes:
citations:
Sylvia Curtis Steinert [1899-1981], Paris and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France, to her brother, Ralph Wormeley Curtis, Jr.
date: Probably 1933 - probably 1936
footnotes:
* The 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.
citations:
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
date: 1898 - probably 1933
footnotes:
* The 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.
citations:
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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.
digital description:
wall 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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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS