John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)
Edwin Booth (1890)
Amon Carter Museum acquires masterpiece by Sargent The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announced the acquisition of ‘Edwin Booth’, a major, full-length painting by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925).]]>
September 8th, 2013, source: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art / theartwolf.com
The work is a portrait of the great 19th-century Shakespearean actor, Edwin Booth (1833–1893). It was commissioned by members of The Players in New York City, a private club for actors founded by Booth and his friends in 1888, and remained there until 2002, when debt forced the club to sell it to a private collector. Now owned by the Amon Carter, “Edwin Booth” is on view in the museum’s main gallery.
According to several sources, the Amon Carter paid in the region of $5 million for the painting, a similar price than the one paid for Sargent’s “Marionettes” (1903), sold three months ago at Sotheby’s New York. Auction record for Sargent is $23.5 million for “Group with Parasols (A Siesta)” (1905) in 2004.
“Sargent is one of the most important American artists and we are thrilled to add another one of his masterpieces to our collection,” says Andrew J. Walker, director of the Amon Carter. “At first glance, Sargent’s Booth appears so alive that we can easily envision him delivering a soliloquy from Hamlet, one of his signature roles,” Walker continues. “Upon further study, we discover that the painting is a carefully nuanced work of art, one of quiet emotion.”
Sargent created a masterful, immortal image of the revered actor—the 19th century’s greatest American tragedian and older brother of John Wilkes Booth—while also giving us a glimpse of Booth’s personality, according to Margi Conrads, deputy director of art and research.
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