A bust-length portrait painting portrays a man with a mustache, in a black suit, holding a violin.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

In a bust-length portrait painting, a man is wearing a black suit and tie, and a white collared shirt. He has dark, unruly hair and a long, wispy mustache. His eyes confront the viewer, and his face is expressionless. He is holding a violin in the crook of his right arm, its neck extending across his body. There is a solid, green-brown background, and the words, “a mon ami Johannes Wolff” are painted in dark red along the top border, followed by the signature “John S. Sargent 97”.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.151
People
John Singer Sargent, American (Florence, Italy 1856 - 1925 London, England)
Frame by M. Grieve Co.
Title
Johannes Wolff (1863-1931)
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1897
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311201

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.1 x 64.3 cm (29 15/16 x 25 5/16 in.)
framed: 100.3 x 87.6 x 8.3 cm (39 1/2 x 34 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: u.r.: John S. Sargent 97
  • inscription: upper edge, oil paint, in artist's hand: a mon ami Johannes Wolff.
  • inscription: paper tape on back of stretcher, graphite: H 30 W 25 1/4
  • inscription: back of stretcher, blue pencil: 22444
  • inscription: back of stretcher, white chalk: 14

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Presumably gift of the artist to Johannes Wolff. [John Levy Gallery, New York, by 1934], sold [through Parke-Bernet, New York, November 4, 1938, lot 61]; to J. N. Gattle. Grenville Lindall Winthrop, by 1941, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.151
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • "Art: The Hundred Best Academy Pictures", The Academy (May 7, 1898), p. 504, p. 504
  • Royal Cortissoz, "John S. Sargent", Scribner's Magazine (November 1903), vol. XXIV, no. 5, pp. 514-532, p. 532, ill. p. 520
  • Mrs. Alice Christiana (Thompson) Meynell, The Work of John S. Sargent, R. A., W. Heinemann, Ltd/C. Scribner's Sons (London, England and New York, NY, 1903), repr. full page, b/w (unpaginated)
  • William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent, His Life and Work, Little, Brown & Company (Boston, MA, 1925), p. 183
  • Evan Charteris, John Sargent, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY, 1927), p. 266
  • Helen Thompson, American Painters Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat., College Art Association of America (New York, NY, 1934), no. 32
  • Percy Colson, A Story of Christie's, S. Low (London, 1950), p. 117
  • Charles Merrill Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY, 1955), no. 974, p. 435
  • David McKibbin, Sargent's Boston, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1956), p. 132, Check List of Sargent's Portraits
  • John Singer Sargent, His Own Work, exh. cat., Coe Kerr Gallery, Inc. (New York, NY, 1980), in checklist, unpaginated
  • Trevor J. Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent and America, Garland Publishing, Inc. (New York, NY, 1986), p. 325
  • Trevor J. Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1994), p. 101
  • Trevor J. Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent: The Sensualist, exh. cat., Seattle Art Museum/Yale University Press (Seattle, WA and New Haven, CT, 2000), p. 30
  • Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 2002), no. 341; p. 82, note 14; p. 128, under no. 342
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 318-20, cat. no. 338, reproduced in b&w, p. 320

Exhibition History

  • Annual Exhibition, 1898, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 01/01/1898 - 12/31/1898
  • American Painters Memorial Exhibition Since 1900, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, 09/01/1934 - 09/30/1934; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 10/07/1934 - 10/28/1934
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu