One of the most celebrated painters of his day, John Singer Sargent
defines for many the style, optimism and opulence of turn-of-the-century
America. Among his renowned portraits, The Daughters of Edward Darley
Boit stands alongside Madame X and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw as one of
Sargent's immortal images. This painting depicts four young sisters in
the spacious foyer of the family's Paris apartment, strangely dispersed
across the murky tones and depths of the square canvas, as though
unrelated to one another, unsettled and unsettling to the eye. The
Daughters both affirms and defies convention, flouting the boundaries
between portrait and genre scene, formal composition and quick sketch or
snapshot. Unveiled at the Paris Salon of 1883, it predated by just two
years the scandal of Madame X and was itself characterized by one critic
as four corners and a void; but Henry James came closer to the mark when
he described the painter as a knock-down insolence of talent, for few of
Sargent's works embody the epithet as well as The Daughters of Edward
Darley Boit. Drawing on numerous unpublished archival documents, scholar
Erica E. Hirshler excavates all facets of this iconic canvas, discussing
not only its significance as a work of art but also the figures and
events involved in its making, its importance for Sargent's career, its
place in the tradition of artistic patronage and the myriad factors that
have contributed to its lasting popularity and relevance. The result is
an aesthetic, philosophical and personal tour de force that will change
the way you look at Sargent's work, and that both illuminates an iconic
painting and reaffirms its pungent magnetism.
