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Ada Rehan
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Ada Rehan
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From John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s, by Richard Ormond
and Elaine Kilmurray. Volume II of The John Singer Sargent Catalogue
Raisonné, Published for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies
in British Art by Yale University Press, New Haven and London. See
below to order these three volumes.
Copyright © 2003 by Yale University. Used by permission
1894.
Oil on canvas, 93 X 501/8 (236.2 X 127.3).
Inscribed, lower left: John S. Sargent.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bequest of Catharine Lasell
Whitin, in memory of Ada Rehan
da Rehan (1860-1916) was born Delia Crehan in Limerick, Ireland.
Her two older sisters had both become actresses, and she made her
debut at sixteen with Mrs John Drew's stock company at the Arch
Street Theatre in Philadelphia, where a printer misbilled her as
'Ada C. Rehan'. The name stuck, and she became famous in theatres
on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1879, Rehan began a partnership
with Augustin Daly and his company which was to last for some twenty
years, and saw the creation of her great dramatic and comedic performances,
perhaps most notably her Katharine in The Taming of the Shrew. She
was working with Daly in London from 27 June 1893 to 7 May 1894,
and she seems to have been introduced to Sargent at some point during
the winter. The commission to paint her came from Catharine Lasell
Whitin of Whitinsville, Massachusetts, who greatly admired her.
Three letters from Sargent to Miss Rehan and one to Mrs Whitin are
in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C. The text of
four letters from Sargent to Mrs Whitin is published in H. W. Williams,
'Four Letters by J. S. Sargent Concerning His Portrait of Ada Rehan',
Art in America, 29 (July 1941), pp. 173-4.
According to Mrs Whitin's daughter, Mrs E. K. Swift, her mother
met Sargent at a dinner party in December 1893, and the proposed
portrait was discussed then (letter of 7 January 1941, MMA, Department
of American Art archives). The commission had certainly been given
by January of the following year because Sargent wrote in reply
to Mrs Whitin on 27 January:
I am glad that you incline to a portrait not in character,
as both she and I feel the same way. This is all that we could decide
at the time, but when I go up to town again she is coming to my
studio with several dresses to choose from, and there in the proper
light, I will be able to come to conclusion about the treatment
of the picture. I think it ought to be full length in spite of the
fact that it will have to stand on the ground or very nearly. The
price that I asked you for painting Miss Rehan ($2,500) is below
my usual price and you would do me a favor by not mentioning it,
as I have several orders to fulfill in America at a higher figure.
I think the whole impression, and the upper part of Miss Rehan's
face is very fine, and I hope I shall satisfy your ambition for
the portrait. We expect to accomplish it in the months of March
and April. (H. W Williams, 'Four Letters by J. S. Sargent Concerning
His Portrait of Ada Rehan', Art in America, 29, July 1941,
p. 173)
The progress of the painting was beset by delays: Miss Rehan was
involved in rehearsals for Twelfth Night and Sargent was engaged
on the Boston Public Library murals and on portraits for exhibitions.
Work did not begin until April. Miss Rehan was reluctant to sit
because she had been ill and was suffering from the demands of a
heavy theatrical season, but Sargent wrote to persuade her:
I am very sorry to hear you have been ill and feel unequal to the
task of sitting which is a great disappointment. In case there was
a chance of making you change your mind I should argue, with more
truth than seems likely, that a great many people find it rather
a rest than otherwise, and also that some of my best results have
happened to be obtained with few sittings. From now to the 6th of
May might be ample time for me if fortune favours (Lady Agnew was
done in six sittings), but I always admit beforehand that it may
take me much longer - Will you give me a chance? or at any rate
will you come to my studio with a dress or two, and let me see if
really you look the worse for your long season of work. The public
does not seem to think so! and I don't believe I shall. (undated
letter headed 'Wednesday', Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington,
D. C.)
In an undated letter, Sargent explained his plans to Ralph Curtis:
'For the moment I am going to do some portraits here, among others
Miss Rehan who is very paintable' (Boston Athenaeum, Sargent Papers,
box 1, folder 3). He wrote to Miss Rehan on 7 April from Morgan
Hall to arrange a sitting:
Today my pictures have left here for the Academy and I am at liberty
to resume portrait work - I have not been to town since I called
on you and have been so pressed for time with my Boston decorations
which I have been doing down here that I have not had a minute for
our proposed dress rehearsal. If you are in town may we have it
next week any day after Monday? I have had a second letter from
Mrs Whitin, quite agreeing with what I communicated to her of our
talk'. (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Rehan is painted wearing an off-the-shoulder gown of ivory satin
with a satin train; the sleeves are of silk gauze, and she has a
tasselled silk stole tied around her waist. Mrs. Graham Robertson
was sitting to Sargent at the same time (see no. 305), and Rehan
is portrayed holding Mrs Robertson's white feather fan (see Robertson
1931, p. 234). The main sittings presumably took place during the
early summer months, but the background presented significant problems.
Sargent tried to incorporate a Persian rug into the picture as a
backdrop. On 18 August, he wrote to Mrs Gardner: 'It did not answer
in Miss Rehan's picture - she became a mere understudy and the carpet
played the principal part, so it had to be taken out' (ISGM archive).
On Sargent's advice, Mrs Gardner had recently acquired a mid-sixteenth-century
Persian carpet from Benguiat Brothers in London: an examination
of the portrait shows traces of a pattern beneath the present surface
which seem to relate to the design of the rug, which is now in the
Titian Room at Fenway Court in Boston. Neither Sargent nor Mrs Whitin
nor Miss Rehan was happy with the brilliance of the original background
and a tapestry (seventeenth-century Flemish with horsemen, in the
style of Rubens) was found to take its place (see Accessories, p.
xxiv, no. 33). On the floor is one of the Aubusson carpets owned
by the artist (Accessories, p. xxiv, no. 35). The picture was not
actually completed until the following spring. Sargent wrote to
Mrs Whitin on 22 March 1895:
Miss Rehan's portrait has only lately been finished, as
all winter long I have been unable to work at anything but my Boston
decorations for which I have been much pressed by the trustees of
the library. Hence the reason of my not having been able to send
the portrait to New York [presumably to the Century Club, where
it had been suggested that the picture might be exhibited]. The
picture has now a background of tapestry which improves it very
much. I have found a charming old frame for it which I hope you
will approve of. I think the picture would look much better in an
exhibition if it retained the original size of the canvas as you
saw it. It will be an easy matter, when you want it in your home
to cut a few inches off the top, and have the frame reduced to fit
the height of your room. It is a risk in the Royal Academy not to
hang a full length portrait on the line, so I think it had better
go to the New Gallery where you saw Mrs Hammonolz's [sic] (Hammond's)
[sic] portrait [Sargent is referring to Mrs Hugh Hammersley, no.
284, which was exhibited at the New Gallery in 1893], and where
it will have a first rate place. (H. W. Williams, 'Four Letters
by J. S. Sargent Concerning His Portrait of Ada Rehan', Art in
America, 29, July 1941, p. 174.); 1894-9
There were further letters between Mrs Whitin and Sargent, which
record the planned photographing and exhibiting of the picture (22
August 1894) and some minor changes to the background, which Mrs Whitin
had requested (22 August 1895): 'I have just returned to London and
put Miss Rehan's portrait in my studio and looking very well I think.
As I wrote to you on leaving New York I have in mind your suggestions,
and will do some slight work to the background' (Williams, 'Four Letters
by Sargent...', Art in America, 29, July 1941, p. 174). Some
of the correspondence between Sargent and Miss Rehan and Sargent and
Mrs Whitin is quoted in Burke 1980, pp. 245-7. Sargent wrote to Mrs
Whitin about a photograph of the painting which she had had done and
which showed signs of heavy retouching and was not to his satisfaction
(Folger Shakespeare Library).
When the portrait was included in a loan exhibition at the Corcoran
Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1898, the Art Amateur
noted that in contrast to works by artists like Madrazo, Chartran
and Bonnat, 'John Sargent's beautiful portrait of Ada Rehan shone
with increased brilliancy, and, in looking at it, one quite forgot
each quality of skill displayed in its execution, and saw only the
exquisite type of woman's head portrayed. This was by far the chef
d'oeuvre of the modern portrait section' (Art Amateur, June
1898, p. 20). The picture is mentioned as 'a good one' by Sargent
in a letter to Walter Clark of 13 January (no year date) about the
proposed exhibition of his work at the Grand Central Art Galleries,
New York, in 1924 (GCAG archive).
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