Erica E. Hirshler

Brief. Very nicely written. Intended for a very general audience. Little seems to be known about the actual circumstances of the creation of the painting. The author moves smoothly among various topics, such as the history of that part of Boston, street lights, women's clothing, and the reception (not particularly noteworthy) of the painting itself. It only became popular in the 1970s when it returned to the MFA after hanging in a city office for years - people started buying the postcards, etc. I would have liked to know more about the artist himself, for example whether he had daughters of that age, and his painting methods, but I suppose that information is available elsewhere. I hope to read more books in this MFA Spotlight series.… (meer)

An exhaustive study of one of Sargent's best-known paintings by a senior curator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The book also examines Sargent's career; the career of another ex-patriate American painter, Edward Darley Boit, whose daughters were the models for the portrait; the history of the Boit family; and the Parisian social and artistic milieu that served as the setting for the portrait. While the book was absorbing, it was a little too detailed, particularly when it came to the work of Boit, who was not a primary subject here.… (meer)

This book ended up not being what I was expecting and I think all the more interesting for that.
I expected this book to be more about John Singer Sargent himself and his work on the titled painting but instead it focused far more on the Boit family, the culture the artist was working in and how it influenced his work and vice versa and the impact and life the painting had beyond it's creation.

It's easy to forget today how radical and controversial the art created by the Impressionists was in it's day and it was fascinating to look at this from such a different perspective.… (meer)