John Singer Sargent 1856 - 1925

Mr. and Mrs. George Mosenthal, Esq., London
Edgar Mosenthal, 1929 (their son)
D.H.G. Mosenthal (sold: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London, March 14, 1979, lot 26)
Private collection (acquired at the above sale; sold: Christie's, New York, May 29, 1987, lot 184, illustrated in color)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by the Late John S. Sargent, 1926, no. 354, p. 53

William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work, Boston, Massachusetts, 1925, p. 358
Evan Charteris, John Sargent, London, 1927, p. 273
David McKibbin, Sargent's Boston: With an Essay & a Biographical Summary & a Complete Checklist of Sargent's Portraits, Boston, Massachusetts, 1956, p. 112
Charles Merrill Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, New York, 1969, p. 446
Dolores Fleischer and Angela Caccia, Merchant Pioneers: The House of Mosenthal, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1983, pp. 246-7, illustrated pp. 170-1, illustrated in color pl. 21
Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits, Complete Paintings, vol. III, New Haven, Connecticut, 2003, no. 518, pp. 172-3, illustrated in color

Please call the department at 212-606-7280 for the condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

At the turn of the last century, John Singer Sargent reached the pinnacle of his career as an acclaimed portrait painter, receiving numerous commissions from clients in both America and Great Britain where he made his home. Between 1900 and 1907 he completed over 130 portraits, averaging seventeen per year — a testament to the painter's popularity with the upper classes and the heightened demand for portraiture during this period. Sargent's sitters came from a broad cross-section of society, including aristocrats, politicians, and businessmen. His portraits were a means through which members of the aristocracy referenced their noble stature and ancestral connections, while the bourgeoisie relied on portraiture as a tool to enhance their status by linking them to the grand portrait tradition usually reserved for royalty and members of the aristocracy.

In 1906, Sargent completed Marguerite Mosenthal's portrait. Her husband, George, was one of four brothers who oversaw a vast mercantile empire in South Africa. From their headquarters in Port Elizabeth, the Mosenthal family began their business in the 1830s. Their chain of small country stores, which supplied items such as drapery, hosiery, and hardware to the rural communities along the Eastern Cape, quickly grew into the largest merchant house in South Africa. Though the Mosenthal's vast fortune was established in trade, they were also active in the nascent diamond business. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Mosenthal's were powerful "Randlords," those entrepreneurs who controlled the early diamond mining industry in South Africa. In London, George Mosenthal and his wife lived an elegant lifestyle at 190 Queen's Gate with their two sons, Edgar and Harold, and their daughter Georgette. For Marguerite Mosenthal, a portrait by Sargent would have been an ideal asset to her well-appointed home and a mark of her place in the upper-echelons of British society.

Described by her biographers as a "French woman of taste and a certain powerful presence," Mrs. Mosenthal did not commission this painting, but was most likely invited by Sargent to sit for him when they met at a dinner party. The artist completed the portrait in his Tite Street studio, with the subject seated in one of his regal bergère chairs covered by a swath of oriental fabric. Sargent frequently used exotic textiles and luxurious furniture to create an atmosphere of opulence and sophistication. Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray note that in Sargent's portraits of women, "the bergère chair continued to dominate, providing a curving form which encloses the figure and compliments the rhyming lines of body and dress ... [the women's] hands lie in the lap or grasp the frame of the chair; shawls and scarves wrap sinuously around the body" (John Singer Sargent, 2003, p. 33). The elegant trappings of Mrs. Mosenthal's portrait—the fashionable evening gown, jeweled ring, and diamond pin—reveal Sargent's interest in presenting his affluent subjects as reflections of the rarified world of London's elite.