DISCOVERING ELSIE PALMER John Singer Sargent’s spellbinding portrait of Elsie Palmer recently returned home to Colorado Springs from Ightham Mote, a medieval manor house near Sevenoaks, in Kent, England. The painting has been on loan to Ightham Mote, which now belongs to the National Trust of Britain, but was once the residence of Queen Palmer and her daughters in the 1880s. In honor of Elsie’s return, CSPM is participating in an exhibit titled, P.S. I Love You: A Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer at the Fine Arts Center to highlight the history of the painting and of the Palmer family. Several dozen artifacts from CSPM’s collections were loaned to the FAC for the exhibition including diaries, photographs, historic clothing and the Palmer family’s Steinway piano. John Singer Sargent’s striking painting of Elsie Palmer known simply as A Portrait or more contemporarily Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer has perplexed audiences from the time it first appeared at the New Gallery, London in 1891. Owned by the family for decades, the painting was later acquired by the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1969. The Palmer family met John Singer Sargent through a wide circle of artistic & literary luminaries they befriended in England when Queen and her daughters moved abroad in the mid-1880s. Sargent, an artist renowned for his skill and speed in creating provocative likenesses of his sitters, struggled with capturing seventeen year old Elsie Palmer. He met with Elsie at the family’s home, Ightham Mote on October 31, 1889 to begin her portrait. It took the painter more than a year to capture the essence of a teenager in metamorphosis. Working alternately at his Tite Street studio in Chelsea, and visits to the Mote, the painter and sitter formed an unlikely friendship. In the end he remained unsatisfied with his work. Writing to Elsie, “…I want to do something more to your portrait, so won’t you wait … to have it photographed?” Sargent never defined the term “something more” and his work on the painting ceased soon thereafter. Photos from the collections of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Elsie Palmer, Oak Cottage 1895 ON THE COVER: John Singer Sargent American (1856-1925) Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer (A Lady in White) 1889-1890 Oil on canvas Collection of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College Funds acquired through public subscription and Debutante Ball Purchase Funds, FA1969.3 MUSELETTER AUGUST 2018| PG 2 To learn more about the story behind the portrait join CSPM and FAC for the Discovering Elsie Palmer Program Series on September 14 & 15. Details can be found under Upcoming Events. Dorothy Palmer Marjorie Palmer
3 Publizr Home