| |
Ada Rehan
|
Ada Rehan
From John Singer Sargent: Portraits
of the 1890s, by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray. Volume
II of The John Singer Sargent Catalogue Raisonné, Published
for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale
University Press, New Haven and London. See below to order
these three volumes.
Copyright © 2003 by Yale University. Used by permission
1894.
Oil on canvas, 93 X 501/8 (236.2 X 127.3).
Inscribed, lower left: John S. Sargent.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bequest of Catharine
Lasell Whitin, in memory of Ada Rehan
da Rehan (1860-1916) was born Delia Crehan in Limerick, Ireland.
Her two older sisters had both become actresses, and she made
her debut at sixteen with Mrs John Drew's stock company at
the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where a printer misbilled
her as 'Ada C. Rehan'. The name stuck, and she became famous
in theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1879, Rehan
began a partnership with Augustin Daly and his company which
was to last for some twenty years, and saw the creation of
her great dramatic and comedic performances, perhaps most
notably her Katharine in The Taming of the Shrew. She was
working with Daly in London from 27 June 1893 to 7 May 1894,
and she seems to have been introduced to Sargent at some point
during the winter. The commission to paint her came from Catharine
Lasell Whitin of Whitinsville, Massachusetts, who greatly
admired her. Three letters from Sargent to Miss Rehan and
one to Mrs Whitin are in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington,
D. C. The text of four letters from Sargent to Mrs Whitin
is published in H. W. Williams, 'Four Letters by J. S. Sargent
Concerning His Portrait of Ada Rehan', Art in America,
29 (July 1941), pp. 173-4.
According to Mrs Whitin's daughter, Mrs E. K. Swift, her mother
met Sargent at a dinner party in December 1893, and the proposed
portrait was discussed then (letter of 7 January 1941, MMA,
Department of American Art archives). The commission had certainly
been given by January of the following year because Sargent
wrote in reply to Mrs Whitin on 27 January:
I am glad that you incline to a portrait not in character,
as both she and I feel the same way. This is all that we
could decide at the time, but when I go up to town again
she is coming to my studio with several dresses to choose
from, and there in the proper light, I will be able to come
to conclusion about the treatment of the picture. I think
it ought to be full length in spite of the fact that it
will have to stand on the ground or very nearly. The price
that I asked you for painting Miss Rehan ($2,500) is below
my usual price and you would do me a favor by not mentioning
it, as I have several orders to fulfill in America at a
higher figure. I think the whole impression, and the upper
part of Miss Rehan's face is very fine, and I hope I shall
satisfy your ambition for the portrait. We expect to accomplish
it in the months of March and April. (H. W Williams, 'Four
Letters by J. S. Sargent Concerning His Portrait of Ada
Rehan', Art in America, 29, July 1941, p. 173)
The progress of the painting was beset by delays: Miss Rehan
was involved in rehearsals for Twelfth Night and Sargent was
engaged on the Boston Public Library murals and on portraits
for exhibitions. Work did not begin until April. Miss Rehan
was reluctant to sit because she had been ill and was suffering
from the demands of a heavy theatrical season, but Sargent
wrote to persuade her:
I am very sorry to hear you have been ill and feel unequal
to the task of sitting which is a great disappointment.
In case there was a chance of making you change your mind
I should argue, with more truth than seems likely, that
a great many people find it rather a rest than otherwise,
and also that some of my best results have happened to be
obtained with few sittings. From now to the 6th of May might
be ample time for me if fortune favours (Lady Agnew was
done in six sittings), but I always admit beforehand that
it may take me much longer—Will you give me a chance?
or at any rate will you come to my studio with a dress or
two, and let me see if really you look the worse for your
long season of work. The public does not seem to think so!
and I don't believe I shall. (undated letter headed 'Wednesday',
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C.)
In an undated letter, Sargent explained his plans to Ralph
Curtis: 'For the moment I am going to do some portraits here,
among others Miss Rehan who is very paintable' (Boston Athenaeum,
Sargent Papers, box 1, folder 3). He wrote to Miss Rehan on
7 April from Morgan Hall to arrange a sitting:
Today my pictures have left here for the Academy and I
am at liberty to resume portrait work—I have not been
to town since I called on you and have been so pressed for
time with my Boston decorations which I have been doing
down here that I have not had a minute for our proposed
dress rehearsal. If you are in town may we have it next
week any day after Monday? I have had a second letter from
Mrs Whitin, quite agreeing with what I communicated to her
of our talk'. (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Rehan is painted wearing an off-the-shoulder gown of ivory
satin with a satin train; the sleeves are of silk gauze, and
she has a tasselled silk stole tied around her waist. Mrs.
Graham Robertson was sitting to Sargent at the same time (see
no. 305), and Rehan is portrayed holding Mrs Robertson's white
feather fan (see Robertson 1931, p. 234). The main sittings
presumably took place during the early summer months, but
the background presented significant problems. Sargent tried
to incorporate a Persian rug into the picture as a backdrop.
On 18 August, he wrote to Mrs Gardner: 'It did not answer
in Miss Rehan's picture—she became a mere understudy
and the carpet played the principal part, so it had to be
taken out' (ISGM archive). On Sargent's advice, Mrs Gardner
had recently acquired a mid-sixteenth-century Persian carpet
from Benguiat Brothers in London: an examination of the portrait
shows traces of a pattern beneath the present surface which
seem to relate to the design of the rug, which is now in the
Titian Room at Fenway Court in Boston. Neither Sargent nor
Mrs Whitin nor Miss Rehan was happy with the brilliance of
the original background and a tapestry (seventeenth-century
Flemish with horsemen, in the style of Rubens) was found to
take its place (see Accessories, p. xxiv, no. 33). On the
floor is one of the Aubusson carpets owned by the artist (Accessories,
p. xxiv, no. 35). The picture was not actually completed until
the following spring. Sargent wrote to Mrs Whitin on 22 March
1895:
Miss Rehan's portrait has only lately been finished, as
all winter long I have been unable to work at anything but
my Boston decorations for which I have been much pressed
by the trustees of the library. Hence the reason of my not
having been able to send the portrait to New York [presumably
to the Century Club, where it had been suggested that the
picture might be exhibited]. The picture has now a background
of tapestry which improves it very much. I have found a
charming old frame for it which I hope you will approve
of. I think the picture would look much better in an exhibition
if it retained the original size of the canvas as you saw
it. It will be an easy matter, when you want it in your
home to cut a few inches off the top, and have the frame
reduced to fit the height of your room. It is a risk in
the Royal Academy not to hang a full length portrait on
the line, so I think it had better go to the New Gallery
where you saw Mrs Hammonolz's [sic] (Hammond's) [sic] portrait
[Sargent is referring to Mrs Hugh Hammersley, no. 284, which
was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893], and where it
will have a first rate place. (H. W. Williams, 'Four Letters
by J. S. Sargent Concerning His Portrait of Ada Rehan',
Art in America, 29, July 1941, p. 174.); 1894-9
There were further letters between Mrs Whitin and Sargent,
which record the planned photographing and exhibiting of the
picture (22 August 1894) and some minor changes to the background,
which Mrs Whitin had requested (22 August 1895): 'I have just
returned to London and put Miss Rehan's portrait in my studio
and looking very well I think. As I wrote to you on leaving
New York I have in mind your suggestions, and will do some
slight work to the background' (Williams, 'Four Letters by
Sargent...', Art in America, 29, July 1941, p. 174).
Some of the correspondence between Sargent and Miss Rehan
and Sargent and Mrs Whitin is quoted in Burke 1980, pp. 245-7.
Sargent wrote to Mrs Whitin about a photograph of the painting
which she had had done and which showed signs of heavy retouching
and was not to his satisfaction (Folger Shakespeare Library).
When the portrait was included in a loan exhibition at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1898, the
Art Amateur noted that in contrast to works by artists
like Madrazo, Chartran and Bonnat, 'John Sargent's beautiful
portrait of Ada Rehan shone with increased brilliancy, and,
in looking at it, one quite forgot each quality of skill displayed
in its execution, and saw only the exquisite type of woman's
head portrayed. This was by far the chef d'oeuvre of the modern
portrait section' (Art Amateur, June 1898, p. 20).
The picture is mentioned as 'a good one' by Sargent in a letter
to Walter Clark of 13 January (no year date) about the proposed
exhibition of his work at the Grand Central Art Galleries,
New York, in 1924 (GCAG archive).
For more about The John Singer
Sargent Catalogue Raisonné project,
and/or to order the books, click on
Book
Reviews in the menu to the left. |
sargent
articles index