"Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer" or "Young Lady in White"
John Singer Sargent
Italian
1889-1890
My first Impressions:
This girl is wearing a long and full white dress, so I assume that she is wealthy. Her body language implies that she has grace, but her face seems to lack happiness, even though there is a hint of a smile. It reminds me of the Mona Lisa painting, how her smile had been so mysterious, it was hard to tell if she was happy or not. The light looks like sunlight, so it must have been a sunny day. Behind her the wood wall has a pattern of carvings that continues until it reaches the bench she sits on. I think that this could be the inside of a church, right next to a door so the sunlight can enter through.
What I have learned:
Miss Elsie Palmer was the daughter of a wealthy American from Colorado. She had rented the Ightham Mote house in which John Singer Sargent would visit frequently. He also painted A Game of Bowls at this house. Sargent had other paintings of children, such as Jeanne Kieffer, 1879 and Casper Goodrich, 1887. In these paintings, he captures the essence of childhood from the art and literature of that time.
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