Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas

by Donna M. Lucey

In this seductive, multilayered biography, based on original letters and diaries, Donna M. Lucey illuminates four extraordinary women painted by the iconic high-society portraitist John Singer Sargent. With uncanny intuition, Sargent hinted at the mysteries and passions that unfolded in his subjects’ lives.

Elsie Palmer traveled between her father’s Rocky Mountain castle and the medieval English manor house where her mother took refuge, surrounded by artists, writers, and actors. Elsie hid labyrinthine passions, including her love for a man who would betray her. As the veiled Sally Fairchild—beautiful and commanding—emerged on Sargent’s canvas, the power of his artistry lured her sister, Lucia, into a Bohemian life. The saintly Elizabeth Chanler embarked on a surreptitious love affair with her best friend’s husband. And the iron-willed Isabella Stewart Gardner scandalized Boston society and became Sargent’s greatest patron and friend.

Like characters in an Edith Wharton novel, these women challenged society’s restrictions, risking public shame and ostracism. All had forbidden love affairs; Lucia bravely supported her family despite illness, while Elsie explored Spiritualism, defying her overbearing father. Finally, the headstrong Isabella outmaneuvered the richest plutocrats on the planet to create her own magnificent art museum.

These compelling stories of female courage connect our past with our present—and remind us that while women live differently now, they still face obstacles to attaining full equality.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Art, History, Art History, Book Club, Historical

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2017

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

First woman, Elsie Singer, portrait https://www.google.com/search?q=the+p...

Second woman, Lucia Fairchild. Although Sargent didn't paint her, only her sister Sally, he had a big influence on her own painting endevour and career.
https://www.isabel.com/gallery/reprod...

Third woman was Elizabeth Chanlor.

All these women were from the most prominent families of their time. All were raised in the utmost privilege and excess of the Gilded age. Sargent rose to prominence by painting all the movers and shakers of the day. Although he never painted Lucia Fairchild, he was integral to her own career and success as an artist in her own right. He painted her sister Sally multiple times. If anyone proves the old adage, "money can't buy happiness, it is these women. Their stories were absolutely fascinating, their lives not without heartache and torment.

The fourth woman was Isabelle Stewart Gardner and her story was the most fulfilling, her travels, the art she collected. She may not have been beautiful but she was one smart and headstrong woman. This book is meticulously researched, as the author acknowledged they left so many papers, letters, diaries it was a feast of all involved in their lives. The Gilded Age was a fascinating period and we get a keen sense of how these women and their families lived. How they made their money, spent it. We get a passing glimpse of the notable artists of the time, authors such as Henry James and other who moved in this upper class orbit.

Sargent himself is mentioned throughout, and we do learn a bit about his life here and there. This though is not his biography, it is very much about these woman and the times in which they lived. Photographs of their paintings, as well as their homes and a few other items of interest are included at the back of the book. I very much enjoyed this foray into a time that has come and gone.

ARC from publisher.

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Really wanted to love this one as it had all the elements I was looking for in a good book but unfortunately it fell flat for me and I will try to outline my reasons why.

I love reading books about painters and their muses and was really excited when I read the premise for this book. A multi-layered biography, based on actual letters and diaries, “Sargent’s Women” presents biographies of four American ladies whose lives intersected with John Singer Sargent’s. I was fully aware that this wasn't a book on Sargent himself but on the women that sat for his paintings and I loved the idea of getting to know these ladies. Set in the Gilded age and full of descriptions of the wealth, mystery and intrigue of this time, this really should have had all the ingredients of a 5 star read for me but I just didn't connect with the book.

I think the main reason is that I listened to this one on audio and it fell flat, The narrator was good, but for me the book didn't work well on audio as all the information became too detailed and thus too diluted and I just couldn't stay focused or connect to any of the women. The research is excellent and sense of time and place should have had me captivated but I found myself zoning out and if asked when finishing to do a summary on each of the women I am not sure I would be able to complete the task.
I do think I would have gotten way more from this book had I read it as opposed to listening to it. Perhaps the hard copy has images which by listening to I missed out on.

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have ever looked at the faces of the women in John Singer Sargent's Gilded Age portraits and wondered about their lives, this is the book you need to read. Sargent's reputation has waxed and waned over the years but he remains my favorite portraitist and his canvases are scattered through some of the great art galleries of the world. In this multi-layered biography, the author tells the story the women in four of his portraits as well as a little about the artist himself. (Surprisingly, Virginia Gautteau, the subject of the infamous portrait Madame X is not included).

We learn about the lives of:

Elsie Palmer, daughter of a western railroad baron, who divided her time between Colorado Springs (a town her father developed and she hated) and England, which she loved and considered home. Her mother, who lived separately from her husband, surrounded her daughter with the greats of art, music, and literature of which she was a noted patroness. Elsie, who was a passionate young woman, hiding behind a serious demeanor, fell in love and married the son of a spiritualist. He had some success in literature but was an unstable personality and eventually committed suicide. She survived him by many years and spent her old age in England, the country she loved.

Sally Fairchild, the gloriously beautiful daughter of a wealthy Boston banker is the figure in the next feature portrait.....but the biography is not about her but rather her younger, less attractive sister, Lucia, who studied with Sargent and led the life of a bohemian. She married a man of breeding who was a painter (or thought he was) and he lived off of her money while he dallied with his "art" and other women. He blew through his money and that of his wife and although Lucia had some fame through her miniature paintings, the Fairchild fortune and their reputation faded quickly.

Elizabeth Chanler, whose portrait graces the cover of this book was of the Astor family and lived a privileged but restrictive life in England. She had a hip/spine disease that made her life a continuing misery and an object of pity. until her worldly cousin took her in hand and brought her "out" into society. Sargent said she had the face of a Madonna. She had an affair with her best friend's husband and married him upon the death of his wife. He was a great intellect but soon suffered a complete physical and nervous collapse. When he died, Elizabeth "willed herself to die" according to a long time friend. Her portrait now resides in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Isabella Stewart Gardner who is famed for her museum in Boston and as one of the great art collectors in American history, was not a pretty woman but Sargent saw something in her face that caused him to paint her at two different stages of her life. She was a spoiled, willful, and extremely interesting character who never took "no" for an answer. She was not accepted by Boston society since she was not a Boston native, but she married well and used her resources to build her reputation as an art connoisseur. Hers is the most interesting of the four mini-biographies.

An interesting well researched book which could have used a few more pictures but that is only a minor weakness. I would recommend it.

[Barry Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

In recent times we've seen a bit of a strange trend in art biographies, no longer are the lives' of the artists very interesting (sorry Vasari!) but instead it's who they painted that we start frothing around the mouth for. Much of the recent discourse around many post-Impressionist masterpieces have less to do with the actual painting and more to do with the subject. Exactly whose gee are we looking up in Courbet's L'Origine du monde? who was Manet's brazen Olympia? and so on.

In her book Lucey adds to this discourse by demystifying four portraits by perhaps the most famous portrait artist of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent. So far, so relevant. Lucey gleans most of her information from primary sources, reconstructing narratives from fragments, letters, and diaries to create her four profiles, all of which are complete and in-depth.

With the amount of work Lucey put into this book, you'd think that she'd actually have made it good. One of the biggest problems with this book is that Lucey had the whole Singer Sargent catalogue to work with and yet she chose to work with fairly obscure portraits. Therefore there isn't much of a point revealing the backstory of the sitters because the portraits aren't known in the first place. In fact, two of the works belong to private collections, so who exactly these profiles were written for is a mystery as they cannot possibly be of any benefit to anyone except the portrait owners. In one case the profile isn't even about the woman in the portrait, it's about her sister.

Lucey also really tries her absolute best to break free from the tortuous world of academia and attempts to make her prose sing but instead the final product is more a bad cover version than an aria. There are huge tracts of this book where Lucey descends into wikipedia-esque reportage instead of using her prose to reflect the glitz and glamour of the Gilded Age heroines who she is bringing alive.

However the most thudding disappointment about this book is how Lucey somehow makes it all so dull. Genuinely how is it possible to make these women dull? Every woman discussed is a classic Gilded Age ingenue ripped straight from the pages of Edith Wharton and yet in the hands of Lucey they become boring and lifeless like a coven of Hester Prynnes.

This book is getting two-stars because I did learn a lot from it, however the information I learned literally has no real life applications whatsoever. I can't even make an interesting anecdote out of it.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this move to document Sargent’s subjects a trend? (i.e: Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting; Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X) Are portrait sitters for other artists receiving so much 21st century attention?

Donna Lucey has given us, through the portraits of 4 of Sargent’s subjects, a glimpse of family life in the gilded age. The subjects are tied together by their wealth, their family's interest in the formal painting, drama, music of their day, their being Americans and their connection to John Sargent.

Sargent painted Elsie Palmer as a teen. She had the (mis)fortune to have been born to a railroad titan and a sickly mother. Her father was headquartered in Colorado Springs, and her mother with their 3 daughters in a manor in England where she indulged her interest in the arts. Elsie did what the eldest child was expected to do, take care of her mother and later, as fate would have it, her father. There is a betrayal by a sister and a mid-life dash for freedom through marriage.

The second portrait of is of Sally Fairchild but in this book it is represented in prose by a portrait of her sister Lucia Fairchild Fuller. Lucia paid a high price for youthful love, but created great (and unrecognized) art. Sally and their mother, who may be a stereotypical grand dame, indulged themselves in travel and the arts. They seemed to be either uninterested in or glad for Lucia’s suffering. I hope a future biographer expands this sketch and gives Lucia her own full length biography.

Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler Chapman whose portrait is selected for the cover, had a childhood illness that had her strapped to a board. She lost both parents by age 11. Death seemed to follow her and in one case permitted her to marry the man she pined for (I’d like more info on how he lost his arm). (The Astor Orphan: A Memoir, by an Astor descendant brings the story of Rokeby the Astor-Chanler homestead and one branch of the Elizabeth's family up to date). Sargent called her a “Madonna” and Lucey uses the name for the Chapter on her. Nothing in the text explains this other than that she suffered; but her suffering was nothing compared to that of Lucia Fuller.

The only person who seems to enjoy life in this book is Isabella Stewart. Two portraits, 22 years apart are given, one formal the other a quickly made watercolor. The bio is more appropriate for those who are not aware of her life and her museum, than those who would read this type of book.

The photos are limited to one portrait reproduction and one page of "other" for each subject. Many photos and paintings are described in the text piquing your curiosity. There is no photo of Lucia Fuller’s art or residence, instead, there is a work of her ne’r-do-well husband. Instead of a mature Elsie Palmer, you see individual photos of her sister and the man who came between them. Isabella Gardner taking command of her museum’s construction is surely documented somewhere but not here. The limited photos, while probably not the author’s fault, detract.

There is something missing in the prose. Maybe it is that the short entry format is not to my taste, but with these portraits, you do not get the gist of their lives. Maybe it is not the author’s fault. Maybe for Elsie, Sally and Elizabeth this is it…maybe they were just boring people.

I don't know how to rate this. The research is very good, but the subjects are distant. The skimping on the photos is probably not the author's fault, but the rating is for the book as a whole.

[Elisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this was a 5 part BBC series with the last two parts being about Isabella Gardner.

Definitely a truth is stranger than fiction in some parts.

[Jill Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever looked at a portrait and wondered who the person was and what their life was like? Had they been chosen as a subject to pose for the artist or had they chosen the artist to portray them? Was the portrait done because the subject was famous or the artist was? A portrait can bring so many questions to mind about both the subject and the artist. Portraits are - hands down - my absolute favorite art. (You can keep your French haystacks; give me an interesting face any old time!)

Donna Lucey has written "Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas". She delves into the lives of four women - all painted first around the 1890's - who were either painted by John Singer Sargent or - in one case - had a sister who was. Lucey - who has written about the Gilded Age both in the US and the UK in previous books - chose four women out of the many painted by Sargent in his long career. My minor problem with the book is the choice of the four women she chose to write about. All four were similar - wealthy young women from prominent American families who were as at home in English high society as they were in the rarefied air of Boston and New York City. (Though Lucey does point out the amusing differences between the two American cities.)

It would be helpful if the reader has some knowledge of the artist John Singer Sargent - American-born, British-bred - and the times he painted in. Photographic portraits had begun to be popular by the 1880's, but painted portraits still reigned as the popular method for preserving the subject forever in art. Sargent was hired by many prominent families at the time to paint themselves and their children. Some subjects - Isabella Stewart Gardner, for instance - were painted more than once in their lifetimes. Sargent painted other subjects but he was most famous for his portraits.

Donna Lucey does a good job at looking at the lives - most led somewhat restricted lives because of their gender, their familial circumstances, or their health. Two gained fame due to artistic endeavors - one collected art and the other was a painter of miniatures - while the other two lived quieter lives. John Singer Sargent had a tenuous connection with a couple of the women; his having painted their portraits seemed to be the only link. With the two others, he was a bit more in their lives. As I was reading Lucey's book, however, I couldn't help but wish that she had maybe chosen someone other than Isabella Stewart Gardner to highlight. Her life story is pretty well known. I'd have liked to have read about a woman, who like the previous three, were not well-known. But, okay, here's the thing. The author has the right to choose who she wants to write about. Just like a portrait artist has the right to paint whoever he chooses - financial considerations aside. And Donna Lucey has written a good book about the lives behind the canvas.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever stepped back from one of John Singer Sargent’s brilliant portraits hanging in your favorite museum and wondered; “Who are you?”, “What was your life like?” Lucey has answered that question for four of the women he painted—Elsie Palmer, Sally Fairchild (and her more interesting sister, Lucia), Elizabeth Chanler and the incomparable Isabella Stewart Gardner. They were each from wealthy families, representative of the Gilded Age (1870-1900)—a period where a few industrialists became fabulously rich due to rampant industrialization. While each of these women is interesting on their own, Lucey seems to have chosen them because of the unique manner in which Sargent chose to paint them.
Elsie Palmer sat for Sargent when she was just 17, and proved a difficult commission to complete. He ended up dispensing with the innocent, child-like persona he started with, and the final portrait shows her as pale ghost, clad in a pleated linen dress that resembles a shroud. The wood-carved background also has a pleated appearance. Queen, her mother, lived primarily in England for her health after suffering a heart attack; and her father lived primarily in Colorado where he ruled his vast railroad empire. Both were demanding parents.
Sargent painted the beautiful Sally Fairchild with a scarf covering most of her face. The Fairchilds were one of the wealthy families that lost most of their wealth during the financial collapse of 1893. Sally kept up appearances as best she could despite not being able to afford them. Lucia married a lazy artist, was largely disinherited by her family, and learned how to support herself and family by painting miniatures.
The portrait of Elizabeth Chanler seems to be more typical of Sargent’s work. Her story is dominated by her passionate love affair with her best friend’s mercurial husband. Elizabeth suffered from a bone disease (probably hip tuberculosis) that resulted in horrific treatments and a permanent limp.
And then there is Isabella Stewart Gardner who lived life to the fullest. She reveled in world travel and adored art in all its forms. She ultimately created the Gardner Museum in Boston—modelling the building on a Venetian palace and filling it with sublime works of art. She is the only person Sargent specifically asked to paint—and he did so after Isabella had suffered a number of strokes. She is wrapped nearly head-to-toe in a white sheet in Sargent’s watercolor portrait. Its softness seems to have her floating away. Recommend.

[Leisa Corbett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed finding out more about four of the women in Sargent's circle. Through the stories of the women, I gained some insights about John Singer Sargent as a person. The book is well written. I often think the writers and journalists do a better job writing about art than art historians. I would have given it a 5 star if the author had talked about more of Sargent's portrait subjects

[Deborah Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely one of the best books I’ve ever read! Donna Lucey is a thorough researcher and skilled storyteller. Anyone who enjoys history, art, and The Gilded Age will thoroughly enjoy this book.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The value of this book is that if someone is a fan of John Singer Sargent's portraits, as I am, the stories behind four of the portraits are a real boon. No longer are the women staring out at you from the canvas an empty shell but someone with a history.

I suppose if someone were to create a Venn diagram out of the lives of these four women they would see that what they all had in common was the fact that they were extremely rich American women. They belonged to the upper crust of society of the 19th century. But being rich doesn't make someone happy. It does not make someone nice, or a good financial steward or even autonomous over one's life, although they certainly had privileges that the average person did not.

They spent much of their lives in Britain, hanging out with intellectuals and bohemians, scorning the rich business men who were their fathers or husbands, whose money they rode on to live out their idle lives, never working a day themselves.

That may make these ladies less than desirable, but frankly it is true. They were rich and selfish and even though their lives weren't always rosy, a lot of the unhappiness had more to do with strong will and poor marriage choices.

The first portrait is about a youngish girl, Elsie Palmer, who carried a burden of family responsibilities that would have sunk weaker shoulders. But she soldiered on, finally marrying in her thirties, someone who her family was against, but I think she was trying to free herself from her controlling father, especially since she had to leave England to live with him and her sisters in Colorado after her mother died. Her first romance did not work out, because he was a married man and anyway, her sister ran off with him and became his mistress.

The second woman is as vague as her portrait which is only a side view with her face wrapped in a scarf. Sally Fairchild was so beautiful that all sorts of rich and famous men asked for her hand in marriage. She said no to them all and stayed devoted to her mother all her life. And that's about all we know of her, so Lucey concentrates on her more colorful sister Lucia.

Lucia married for love and then spent her life supporting her husband and children through painting. Neither side of the family would support her because they were against her career as an artist. Yet somehow she eked out a living and maintained a social life with the same artists and writers who socialized with the other ladies in the book. She became a known miniaturist in her day, painting tiny portraits of the Morgans, Rockefellers and other prominent members of New York society of the day.

The third portrait is the most beautiful yet. We see a self-possessed woman regarding us with confidence and a calm demeanor. Elizabeth Chanler was one of the famous Astor orphans and lead a childhood that was wild until relatives intervened and put her in a strict British school for ladies. She tended to be sickly while growing up and one of her legs was shorter than the other, probably due to undiagnosed tuberculosis.

Yet when she was old enough she carried on a clandestine affair with her best friend's husband. The whole thing is strange. This man, Jack, beat up a man whom he thought insulted his wife, Minnie. He was mistaken and in penance burned his arm in a fire. The arm was so badly injured it had to be removed. So why did he later cheat on his wife? You're willing to lose an arm for her honor but not be faithful to her?

And why would any woman be attracted to a man of that quality?

Minnie died suddenly, freeing Jack to marry Elizabeth. This he did and soon after went insane. He slowly recovered and they remained devoted to each other for the rest of their lives, but his children had their own problems, some committing suicide, which was apparently a habit among the rich. Lucia and Sally Fairchild had four brothers who also ended their lives.

Lucey saves the most scandalous for last. Isabelle Stewart Gardner married money and lavished it on herself and her interests. She seemed to have two main interests: scandalizing Boston society with rebellious and outrageous behavior (by Victorian standards) and collecting art. Her portrait by Sargent is considered risque because her "decolletage" is exposed with a low cut dress. Frankly I've seen lower necklines on earlier portraits. Gardner adored her portrait and the uproar it caused. Frankly I find it hideous. She stands with her hands clasped in front of her with her rear end jutting out, looking as wide as a gate, probably due to the corset was wearing and her mouth open.

Her husband, upon seeing it said, "Well, it looks like hell, but it looks just like you."

While I found the women in this book not the most particularly interesting people I've read about, it did inspire a thirst for more of Sargent's art and I have ordered some books of his work accordingly.

[Marzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate to receive an Advanced Reading Copy of this book

3.5 Stars

John Singer Sargent has long been my favorite American painter. I first became fascinated with his work in the early 80's and was lucky enough to have been able to view the massive Whitney Museum of American Art retrospective of Sargent's work back in 1986. One thing that was evident from his massive production is that Sargent had immense natural facility that is often overlooked by his being brushed off as merely a high society portraitist. Like many artists before him, Sargent painted commissioned portraits on the Continent, in England, and in the United States, in order to make a living. These funded his peregrinations, documented in exquisite watercolours, oils, and simple sketches, throughout Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. His society portraits, many of which look as if they have captured characters straight out of an Edith Wharton novel, run the gamut from an homage to Velazquez (The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882) to the famously scandal-imbued Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno, Madame Pierre Gautreau, in a portrait that pretty much ruined her life). Sargent, an American expat who grew up in British and European society, was able to blend smoothly into high society and, until the "petite gaffe" with Virginie Gautreau at the Paris Salon exhibition in 1884, enjoyed a reputation of pleasant discretion. His reputation badly frayed after the Paris Salon of 1884, he departed Paris with the painting in tow. Sargent quickly recovered his reputation in England and the US, taking on some of his best known portraits. (Virginie, on the other hand, withdrew from society and though later commissioned portraits by Courtois and de la Gandara, never recovered her reputation, and was separated from her husband at her death. An interested reader can get the short version here or check out the book Strapless. )

Modern viewers of Sargent's portraits may look at them and wonder who exactly these people were. While male subjects often had public lives and accessible biographies, far less is often available about his female subjects. Lucey has given us short biographies of four of Sargent's American female subjects, all of whom came from some of America's most privileged families. (Presumably American-born Virginie was excluded since she has already been the subject of another book?) Detailing the lives of Elsie Palmer, Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler, the Fairchild sisters, Sally (subject of several portraits) and Lucia (subject of none) and the iconoclast, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Lucey captures the lives of these women, particularly focusing on the period of time when they were painted by Sargent.

While the chapter devoted to Elsie Palmer was interesting, providing information about the Palmer family, the Aesthetic Movement at Ightham Mote, and Glen Eyrie, I found the chapter on the Fairchild sisters to be quite odd. Although Sally Fairchild was the object of a number of portraits by Sargent including a blue-veiled portrait now in a private collection, the bulk of the chapter is about her sister Lucia, presumed too homely by Sargent to bother painting, and who was herself a painter. So little information is provided about Sally's life that I found her selection for the book to be rather disappointing.

The chapter on Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler, later Mrs. John Jay Chapman, was the most interesting to me. Filled with pathos, one feels the poignancy of her early childhood and youth, and the tinge of scandal with her late marriage to her deceased best friend Minna Timmins' husband John Jay Chapman, who was the great love of her life, even when Timmins was still alive. This was a moving biographical sketch.

Isabella Stewart Gardner needs no real introduction to Sargent fans, or to Bostonians. She has been the subject of several books (a point which only makes me question the exclusion of Virginie Gautreau and inclusion of Sally Fairchild) This was an interesting chapter providing a brief biographical sketch of Belle Gardner, or Mrs. Jack, as she was also known. She was both Sargent's patron and friend. This ebullient woman had a great impact on art, privately collecting works by some of history's greatest artists. (Sadly, a number of them are equally famous for being part of art history's greatest theft, a 1990 robbery of 13 works from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, a museum whose security is greatly constrained by the terms of Gardner's bequest creating the museum. Although recently there is a sign that there may be a bit more movement on resolving the heist case.)

I found the descriptions of the paintings by Lucey to be interesting and I'm not sure I always agreed with them. Elsie Palmer's painting, Young Lady in White feels almost preternaturally still and constrained, perhaps presaging her decades of being caught between two very different worlds (elite English society favored by her mother and a more rural Colorado lifestyle favored by her father) and her being shackled to a caregiver role in her family while her younger sister Dos engaged in an affair with the married man that Elsie loved. This portrait is currently on loan from the Colorado Fine Arts Center to Ightham Mote, in Kent, though December 2017. The Sally Fairchild painting favored by Lucey, that of her in a blue veil, while striking, reflects the fact that we don't really learn much about Sally in this book. This portrait is also now in a private collection (as are the other two portraits of her) so unless it is loaned for an exhibit at a major institution, the reader is not likely to see it in person. She remains rather obscured to the reader. The beautiful portrait of Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler, one of Sargent's better known portraits, now held by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art, speaks to me less of "innocence" than of her great personal strength and resolve. Sargent's admiration for his subject is palpable in this portrait. No doubt the similar health struggles shared by Elizabeth and Sargent's sister Emily fueled his empathy for Elizabeth. The prime of life portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner depicts her powerful persona against a backdrop that would suit a renaissance painting. This painting, of course, remains on display at the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum in Boston. Sargent's delicate watercolor of her in dotage, swathed in white, is far more powerful to me than the large oil painting of her in her prime. It was touching that he painted her again, something that no doubt gave her pleasure. I do have to say however, much as I love Sargent, when I think of Mrs. Jack, I'm more inclined to think of her in the style of the dramatic pose in the Anders Zorn painting, also on display in that museum.

All in all, I found the book to be a pleasant read. Those looking for a biography of more of Sargent than his subjects may be disappointed to see little of Sargent here, but I found the book, particularly the Chanler chapter, to be commendable for giving us a story to pair with these pretty society women, whose single job and worth were tethered to making a powerful marriage and retaining social position. These were real women, with real lives, loves and sorrows.

Readers interested in perusing more of Sargent's catalog should check out the virtual museum of his work at http://jssgallery.org/

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really excellent and interesting book about four women that Sargent painted. All these women were so fascinating, and Lucey managed to really flesh them out. (Even Gardner, who I knew the best out of the four). My only complaints are the placements of the illustrations/photographs, and how few there are!

[Laura Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Strong, beautiful, and talented women. Enjoyed very much.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which covered art history and colorful biographical sketches of vibrant women from the Gilded Age. Ms. Lucey selected four women whose portrait John Singer Sargent painted and traced their stories. Of the four, only Isabellla Stewart Gardner has had lasting fame, leaving her museum in Boston for public edification. But the lives Lucey sketches illuminate a swath of culture in a period of extravagant wealth and industry. She did considerable research and her writing is abundantly footnoted. Sargent's stunning talent for portraiture, which he comes to abhor, links it all. Lucey has an eye for detail and her selections make for an enjoyable read with absorbing aspects of the culture and history of the time. A delightful combination of art, biography, and cultural history.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love John Singer Sargent and his portraits. This book takes 4 different ones and highlights the lives of four different women/ An amazing book

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who love the history of the Gilded Age, this is a well researched deep dive into the lives of privileged people who were societal legends of the period. Although John Singer Sargent plays a prominent role in the time and in the book, the book is not about him per se. It is about four of the women he had the opportunity to paint. Making a name for himself as a portrait painter, Sargent was sought after to capture the essence of prominent people on canvas, especially wives and daughters. This book is devoted to telling the life stories of the four women Sargent and later, author Donna Lucey selected. The time period and the artist are the common threads linking the women, with a chapter devoted to each female that ultimately sat, or in some cases, stood for a portrait. Even though these women were thought to be wealthy and fortunate in their day, Lucey reveals the challenges, tragedies, and hardships that befell them in some cases along with the dedication, intelligence, and opportunities they were blessed with in others. What you have is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of these ladies that spans their entire lifetime both before, during and after being painted by Sargent. Sargent fans are allowed a closer glimpse of the artist's clients and friends that naturally provide more insight into his private life. The work frequently cites sources the author has obviously spent a great deal of time in examining to be able to provide the in detail timeline of the woman and her family.

Listening to the audio-book while weeding or doing other mindless tasks, transported me away from whatever drudgery I was engaged in and helped me understand what it was like to live in a time of opulence and privilege for some. My take-away is that it wasn't all rosy. In fact it seems that having wealth certainly can't make a person happy, healthy or wise. The book has also given me the urge to go see the paintings associated with each of Sargent's Women in person, now that I know the story behind each canvas image.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is beautifully printed and bound, and the eight pages of photographs and prints of paintings (by Sargent and others) are very well presented. The writing style of the author is lucid and clear, and she obviously did an extraordinary amount of careful research into the four or five women whose lives she describes. I wanted to like the book, and I do, in fact, like parts of it very much indeed.
But it does not hang together as a whole. You’d think — I thought — that the common theme would be Sargent, the painter or the man. But that is not the case, as Sargent the person only appears fleetingly in the narratives, and those of his paintings that are described are treated almost peripherally. Except for one unattributed painting of Sally Fairbairn, whose life is not described (but whose sister Lucia’s is described in great deal. The author states that Sargent had a great influence on Lucia’s own art, but no example of Lucia’s work is provided for the reader’s examination.)
In sum, while I found the descriptions of the lives of two of the four women to be well worth reading, they might just as easily been stand-alone chapters in a magazine or a totally different book entirely. Perhaps, as some other readers have written, historical sketches of the Gilded Age to accompany a reprint of something like Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence.

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really insightful look into four wealthy American women who lived near the end of the 19th Century. But Lucey goes beyond their wealth, which qualified them to sit for John Singer Sargent, the pre-eminent portraitist of his day. She looks at the way their lives played out and how they demonstrate the challenges faced by women of the day.

Reading a book like this changed my view of Sargent. I didn't realize how successful he had been. A studio in London and entre to the American expat communities there and in Paris. Huge commissions in Boston (for Isabella Stewart Gardner, among others). There was so much wealth in industrial America of that era. It's just amazing.

I guess I only wished that there could be more--a sequel perhaps. Lucey leads the reader to surmise that every woman is fascinated in her own way, whether she is capture at a moment in time by a great artist's brush, or whether she is living vivaciously, too active to be captured on canvas.

[Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that deals with the subjects of some of Sargent’s paintings. Why we cannot have a full fledged biography of Sargent and must be content with his subjects, is a mystery to me. Still this book is entertaining and insightful. Most of the women lead complicated lives of an almost Henry James/Edith Wharton capacity for tragedy. Unlike some of his works, notably “The Daughters of Edward D. Boit, the composition provides no indication of the ultimate fate of the women. Needless to say, these stories contribute to our understanding of Sargent the artist, just the same.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and, at times, had a hard time putting it down. I was especially fascinated by the picture that emerged of the lives led by the extremely wealthy during the gilded age. The four women chosen by Donna Lucey came from this group; and, while at times their lives were filled with beauty and comfort, some of them also lived lives devoid of what I think of as genuine love and warmth. They must always have wondered whether it was their money that attracted "friends."

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly well-researched look at the lives of four women who were subjects of portraits by John Singer Sargent, enlivened by many quotes from letters, diaries, and other primary sources. The chapter on Isabella Stewart Gardner is particularly fun, bringing back memories of visiting the museum she created in Boston. I had hoped for a closer look at Sargent’s life; even so, this is an enjoyable way of seeing the intersection of life and art in Gilded Age America.

[Zosi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magical...its stateliness almost reminds one of a Sargent poem itself. I didn’t know any of these portraits before. I only wish it could have been longer, so I could read about even more fascinating women.

[Bronwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good. Each section talks about a woman that John Singer Sargent painted a portrait of (at least in theory - one section is more about the subjects sister than her). I found some sections to be more interesting than others, but overall a really interesting look at these women.

[Suzannah Waddington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about the lives of these particular women that Singer Sargent painted and felt the narration was lively and informative. Would recommend if you know his work or recognize the women featured in the book.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this pretty dry and the paintings to be a relatively thin premise to hold together four unrelated biographies. I seem to have missed some pretty big details on Elizabeth Chanler because I wasn't staying too focused in spots.

[Bookjazzer2010 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. Enjoyed last chapter the most.

[John Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of interesting drama with rich people.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only muses and models, but at least one woman who was inspired by Sargent's painting of her sister to become a painter. To make a living she made miniature portraits until her eyes gave out.

[Elstirling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stories about 4 women’s lives. Sometimes a little too much but the research is amazing.