Ellen Peabody Endicott (Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott) – (John Singer Sargent) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: John Singer Sargent

Date: 1901

Size: 189 x 142 cm

Technique: Oil On Canvas

A woman with pale skin, wearing a sheer, lace shawl over a high-necked, ink-black dress sits in an upholstered chair in front of a dark, cranberry-red curtain in this vertical portrait painting. The chair and her body nearly fill the composition, though her feet may be cropped by the bottom edge. She sits angled to our right but she turns her face to look at us with gray eyes under arched brows. Shadows line the creases above her eyelids. Set in her thin, oval face, she has a long nose, high cheekbones, and her coral-red lips are closed in a straight line. She is lit from our left, and the light glints in her silvery-gray hair, which is pulled up and back. Her velvety-black, long dress seems to have puffed upper arms over long sleeves that end with wide lace cuffs. The lace shawl wrapped around her shoulders is fastened with a gold pin at her chest, and the ends fall into her lap near her right hand, closer to us. Her other arm rests along the arm of the low-backed chair so her long, elegant fingers dangle off the end. She wears a ring on each hand, including one glinting turquoise, perhaps indicating that it is a dark stone, and one with a pearl. The fabric on the chair is loosely painted with a tan-colored floral design against oyster white. A small, wooden table with a round top to our left, near her right elbow, holds a book with a sage-green cover and vivid red edges, and a shiny, gold, round box. Barely visible against the red curtain behind the woman in the upper right corner is the artist’s signature and date: “John S. Sargent 1901.”