Aaron Augustus Healy
John Singer Sargent
American Art
On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Several Seats
Two years after he sat for this portrait by Sargent, the Brooklyn Museum president A. Augustus Healy led a breathtakingly swift campaign to purchase the entire cache of Sargent’s watercolors from the 1909 Knoedler & Company exhibition. An astute collector, Healy already owned one of the artist’s most recent oil paintings, Dolce Far Niente (also on view in the exhibition). Their first contact had occurred more than a decade earlier; Sargent had brokered the Museum’s purchase of a Giovanni Boldini portrait of James McNeill Whistler in 1897 and the purchase of James Tissot’s monumental watercolor series The Life of Christ in 1900. Sargent’s 1909 exhibition had been open for only two days when Healy expressed his interest to Roland Knoedler in buying the group. Twenty-four hours later, Sargent agreed to Healy’s offer of $20,000, and the transaction was completed.
MEDIUM
Oil on canvas
DATES
1907
DIMENSIONS
34 1/16 x 28 3/4 in. (86.5 x 73 cm)
frame: 44 1/4 x 40 x 4 1/8 in. (112.4 x 101.6 x 10.5 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed upper right: "John S. Sargent"
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
21.50
CREDIT LINE
Bequest of A. Augustus Healy
PROVENANCE
1907, commissioned from the artist by Aaron Augustus Healy of Brooklyn, NY; November 6, 1921, bequeathed by Aaron Augustus Healy to the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Several Seats
CAPTION
John Singer Sargent (American, born Italy, 1856â1925). Aaron Augustus Healy, 1907. Oil on canvas, 34 1/16 x 28 3/4 in. (86.5 x 73 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of A. Augustus Healy, 21.50 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 21.50_PS6.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 21.50_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
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