John Singer Sargent exhibition in London shines a light on the lives of the ‘dollar princesses’

To mark 100 years because the demise of painter John Singer Sargent, English Heritage has placed on a present of 18 portraits of American heiresses that locations their lives and notable achievements on the forefront of the story.

Often called the “greenback princesses”, the ladies had been a part of the transatlantic marriage phenomenon of the late nineteenth century. They travelled to the UK to marry into the British aristocracy, bringing wealth with them. The money injection from one such marriage helped restore Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

Most of the greenback princesses went on to make vital contributions to British society, together with Nancy Astor, who turned the primary sitting feminine Member of Parliament (MP) within the Home of Commons. She held her seat of Plymouth Sutton for 25 years.

One other of the sitters was Dame Jessie Wilton Phipps who additionally had a profession in politics, being elected to London County Council in 1907 and later chairing the Central Council for the London Blind.

An instance of the customarily loveless marriages of the greenback princesses was that of Consuelo Vanderbilt, whose charcoal portrait has by no means been on public show till now. She was against her marriage to the Duke of Marlborough and wept behind her veil on her marriage ceremony day. After the marriage the duke knowledgeable her he had solely agreed to the wedding to save lots of his ancestral dwelling of Blenheim Palace.

Regardless of her sad marriage, the brand new duchess was revered by the poorer tenants on her husband’s property and her progressive politics had been mirrored in her advocacy for social reforms and backing the Liberal Celebration’s welfare insurance policies together with free college meals, free medical checks for youngsters and pensions for the aged. She was additionally a supporter of ladies’s suffrage.

The exhibition, titled Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits, is the primary time the portraits have all been introduced collectively in a single place. Wendy Monkhouse, the curator, tells The Artwork Newspaper: “It’s straightforward to easily view the [dollar princesses] as merely sitters to Sargent however right here, we think about them as people, and their lives are described within the context of broader themes in ladies’s historical past.”

She added that the exhibition does not draw back from the extra troubling features of the portraits. She says: “We now have tackled troublesome and uncomfortable points like misogyny, stereotyping and xenophobia head on, which all performed a major function in establishing the picture of the American heiress of their lifetimes, and nonetheless do immediately. Sargent’s depiction of the ladies displays the world of energy and privilege they got here from, however he additionally conveys their character, power and vitality.’’

Sargent, an ex-pat American who lived and travelled throughout Europe, was probably the most sought-after portraitist of the Gilded Age. A Sargent fee was the proper accompaniment for these new Anglo-American marriages, demonstrating the standing, wealth and energy that got here with combining American new cash and British the Aristocracy.

The portraits, a combination of oil and charcoal sketches, are on show at Kenwood in Hampstead, London till 5 October. Jenny Abramsky, the chair of the Associates of Kenwood, mentioned in an announcement: “Artwork is on the coronary heart of what we do, and with the ability to carry such excellent artwork to Kenwood in Sargent’s centenary 12 months reinforces our confidence in the way forward for Kenwood as a uniquely precious asset for English Heritage and the broader group.”