Musée No:397.043
Regular price £25.00Peter A.B. Widener
Artist: John Singer Sargent
Date: 1902
John Singer Sargent, 1856 - 1925, was an American expatriate artist considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He painted nearly a thousand oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolours, as well as sketches and charcoal drawings. His works show worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.
Sargent's early enthusiasm was for landscapes, as shown by his numerous sketches of mountains, seascapes, and buildings. In 1879 he was a part of Carolus-Duran’s atelier in Paris where he painted a portrait of his teacher to much acclaim. Carolus-Duran's expertise in portraiture finally influenced Sargent in that direction. His best portraits reveal the individuality and personality of the sitters; his most ardent admirers think he is matched in this only by Velázquez.
The sitter: Peter Arrell Browne Widener, 1834 - 1915, was an American businessman, art collector, and patriarch of the Widener family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of a butcher who started his fortune by reinvesting the profits he made during the American Civil War from winning the contract to supply mutton to all Union Army Troops within ten miles of Philidelphia. When he died Widener was ranked no. 29 on the American Heritage list of the forty richest Americans in history, with a net worth of a staggering $23 billion to $25 billion.
