John Singer Sargent
American, 1856-1925
Study for Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, a double-sided work, circa 1885-86
Inscribed J. S. 111 (ll) and See. reverse. (lr)
Graphite pencil on paper
13 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches

Provenance
Estate of the Artist
Thomas Fox. Boston, MA
Robert Bahssin, Post Road Gallery, Antiques and Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
Jill Newhouse Gallery, NY
Private collection, MD

Literature:
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899: The Complete Paintings, Volume V, pp. 126-7, illus. figs. 63 and 64.

This sensitively realized double-sided drawing by John Singer Sargent depicting Marion Alice (Polly) and Dorothy (Dolly) Barnard is one of a handful of studies for his painting Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose that remains in private hands. Sargent undertook his ambitious project in the summer of 1885, while he was staying with the painter Frank Millet and his wife Lily in Broadway in the Cotswolds, recuperating from an injury incurred in a boating mishap. Enchanted by the effect of Chinese lanterns hanging in trees surrounded by flowering lilies, he later described the scene to a friend, "I am trying to paint a charming thing I saw the other evening. Two little girls in a garden at twilight lighting paper lanterns among the flowers from rose-tree to rose-tree. I shall be a long time about it if I don't give up in despair." [John Singer Sargent to Edwin Russell, 10 September 1885, as quoted in Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray, et al. John Singer Sargent, Volume V : Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899: Complete Paintings, 2010, p. 120]

In preparation for his composition, Sargent filled a sketchbook (Collection Fogg Art Museum; several loose sheets that are likely from the same volume are included in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art) with preparatory studies of the gardens, the lanterns amidst the flowers, and of the children themselves. In the present work, the Barnard children, Polly age seven and Dolly age eleven, respectively, are depicted holding lanterns in poses very close to those in the finished painting. Sargent worked on the painting for two summers, completing it in October 1886 and exhibiting it at the Royal Academy in 1887, when it was acquired by purchase for the Tate Gallery, where it is a highlight of the permanent collection.