Mrs. Charles Deering (Marion Denison Whipple)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
71.1 × 61 cm (28 × 24 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
159722
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The sitter was the wife of Charles Deering, Chicago businessman, important benefactor of the Art Institute, and lifelong friend and patron of artist John Singer Sargent. In this half-length portrait, the painter depicted Marion Deering seated with her right arm resting on a chairback, her eyes engaging the viewer. Sargent rendered her face and hand with a high degree of finish, skills he had fine-tuned in the 1870s while a student in Paris. The broader handling of paint in her dress and its lace...
About the Artist
John Singer Sargent · 1856–1925
John Singer Sargent, born on January 12, 1856, in Florence to American expatriate parents FitzWilliam Sargent, an eye surgeon and medical illustrator, and Mary Newbold Singer, an amateur artist, enjoyed a nomadic childhood across Europe. His mother nurtured his artistic inclinations with sketchbooks and museum visits, while he received early watercolor lessons from German landscape painter Carl We...