John Singer Sargent portrait to be sold by Gallery 63 An original oil-on-canvas portrait of Jenny Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill) by John Singer Sargent will be sold on Sunday, Sept. 23, by Gallery 63 in Atlanta. The painting could be worth millions.
News-Antique.com - Sep 07,2007 - PORTRAIT OF LADY RANDOLPH CHURCHILL BY JOHN SINGER SARGENT, MAYBE
WORTH MILLIONS, TO BE SOLD AT SEPT. 23 MULTI-ESTATE SALE BY GALLERY 63
(Atlanta, Ga.) - An original oil-on-canvas portrait of Jenny Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill), by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), is the anticipated top lot in a multi-estate sale slated for Sunday, September 23, by Gallery 63. Sargent is arguably the greatest American portrait artist of all time. However, no record of this finished portrait exists, so it is uncertain just how much it will bring.
“With the right research, this painting could be worth millions – many millions,” said Paul Brown of Gallery 63. “Studies of Lady Churchill are well documented, but not an oil portrait. There is much speculation, however, centered around the fact that the subject was, in addition to being a friend of Sargent's, a controversial figure of her day who was known to have had several high-profile affairs.”
One of the affairs was allegedly with King Edward of England. The necklace she wears in the portrait is said to have been a gift from him. She is even rumored to have taken Sargent himself as a lover. In any event, she is depicted in the painting in a very revealing (for its time) dress that would have been scandalous in the Victorian era. The portrait was formerly in the collection of Leroy Ireland.
“The person who buys this painting, for whatever price, will then become a detective in determining its true history,” Brown said. “This much we know: Sargent's renderings of socialites and the techniques he used in grand manner portraiture are singular and definitive. And they're very much in evidence in this work.” The painting is boldly signed, left middle, “John S. Sargent.” It is undated.
The sale will also feature the American furniture collection of the curator of the Michael Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta. One highlight is an American Aesthetic Movement 5-piece parlor set, executed in the highest Renaissance Revival style by Pottier & Stymus of New York. A nearly identical set is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Also from the Carlos curator group: a stunning flame mahogany American Empire drop-front bureau; an American Empire scroll-ended sofa in flame mahogany with monopodium feet and cornucopia brackets, circa 1820, made in either New York or Philadelphia; and an American Aesthetic Movement canterbury in black walnut, with ebonized trim and stylized incisions and applications.
Also from the same group: a four-drawer antique Biedermeier chest in birdseye maple, with ebonized columns; a museum-quality Berkey & Gay center table in mahogany and rosewood, inlaid with other secondary woods; an American Neoclassical center table in rosewood; an American Federal period mahogany sideboard, with tapered legs, rounded side cabinets and four center drawers; and an American Baroque R.J. Horner mahogany club chair, heavily carved with signature winged gryphons.
Certain to wow the crowd is a mahogany longcase clock made around 1905 by Tiffany & Co., and once
