John Singer Sargent

Estate of the artist

Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 24 July 1925, lot 24 (consigned by the above)

Thomas Agnew & Sons, London (acquired from the above)

Private Collection

Sotheby's, London, 8 July 1970, lot 33 (consigned by the above)

Schweitzer Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)

Browse & Darby, London (acquired from the above on 8 June 1979)

Acquired from the above in 1983 by the present owner

Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Complete Paintings, vol. 7, New Haven, 2012, no. 1437, pp. 316-17, illustrated

By 1907, John Singer Sargent had established himself as the preeminent portraitist for Europe’s elite. At age 51 and the height of his career, however, Sargent decided to officially retire from portraiture to pursue plein-air landscape painting. His life-long friend, Vernon Lee, describes how Sargent painted “from morning till night” during this period. Lee recognized “that [Sargent’s] life was not merely in painting, but in… enjoying the world around him” (Vernon Lee, "J.S.S. In Memoriam," in Evan Charteris, John Sargent, New York, 1927, pp. 254-55). Though portraiture had brought Sargent fame, landscape painting brought him renewed joy. The artist traveled the continent extensively during this period, touring from Norway to Portugal. He likely painted Brenva Glacier, Purtud in August 1907, when he visited the Italian Alps with family and friends. 

Purtud is a village nestled into the base of Mont Blanc, in the Aosta Valley near the French-Italian border. The valley’s stately pines, crystalline brooks, and majestic vistas inspired Sargent to paint with sweeping freedom, his alpine works as spontaneous and fresh as crisp mountain air. For Brenva Glacier, Purtud, scholar Richard Ormond notes that the artist “used a wet-in-wet technique to create the saturated, velvety texture of the trees, which have a mysterious, totemic presence” (Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Complete Paintings, vol. 7, New Haven, 2012, p. 316). 

Brenva Glacier, Purtud is fresh to the market as of 1983, boasting an exceptional, near-complete provenance that stretches back to the artist’s 1925 Estate Sale.