A Venetian Interior

c. 1880–82

During several visits to Venice in the 1880s, Sargent chose to paint the everyday lives of its inhabitants rather than the city’s landmarks. Some of the women in this dimly lit interior string together Venetian glass beads, while others pause for a moment of convivial conversation. Bright light shines through the windows at the far end of the room, drawing our eyes into the otherwise dark, cool space.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	19 1/16 x 23 15/16 in. (48.4 x 60.8 cm) Frame: 29 1/16 x 34 1/16 x 2 5/8 in. (73.8 x 86.5 x 6.7 cm)
Object Number	1955.580
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

John Singer Sargent, A Venetian Interior, c. 1880–82, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.580

Select Bibliography

Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray. Figures and Landscapes, 1874-1882. Vol. IV of John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 2006. Société Internationale de Peintres et Sculpteurs. Société internationale de peintres et sculpteurs: Première Exposition. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: A. Quantin, 1882. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Seven: The Regency and Louis XVI Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1957. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Wildenstein & Company. An Exhibition of Treasures from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts: Paintings, drawings & rare silver, for the benefit of the Committee to Rescue Italian Art, inc. (CRIA). Exhibition catalogue. New York: Wildenstein & Company, 1967. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.. 19th Century America. April 16-Sept. 7, 1970.. 1970.. Hills, Patricia. John Singer Sargent. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986. Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr. The Lure of Italy: American Artists and the Italian Experience, 1760-1914. Exhibition catalogue. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992. Simpson, Marc, et al. Uncanny Spectacle: The Public Career of the Young John Singer Sargent. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1997. Fairbrother, Trevor. John Singer Sargent: The Sensualist. Exhibition catalogue. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. James, Henry. "John S. Sargent." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 75, no. 449 (October 1887): 683–92. Cortissoz, Royal. "The Field of Art." Scribner's Magazine 75 (March 1924): 34552. Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel J. John Singer Sargent. New York: Federick A. Stokes, 1924. Mather, Frank Jewett, Jr. Sixteen Essays on American Painters of the 19th Century. Estimates in Art, Series II. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1931. Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1955. Mount, Charles Merrill. "Carolus-Duran and the Development of Sargent." The Art Quarterly 26, no. 4 (Winter 1963): 385–417. Ormond, Richard. "Sargent's El Jaleo. Fenway Court: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1970. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1971. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Lomax, James, and Richard Ormond. John Singer Sargent and the Edwardian Age. Exhibition catalogue. Leeds, England: Leeds Art Galleries; Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1979. Lovell, Margaretta M. A Visitable Past: Views of Venice by American Artists. Ph.D. diss., Yale University, New Haven, 1980. Faison, S. Lane, Jr. The Art Museums of New England: Massachusetts. Vol. 2. Revised edition of Faison, Guide to the Art Museums of New England, 1958. Godine Guide 3. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Ratcliff, Carter. John Singer Sargent. New York: Abbeville Press, 1982. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Fairbrother, Trevor J. John Singer Sargent and America. Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1981. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986. Lovell, Margaretta M. Visitable Past: Views of Venice by American Artists, 18601915. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Conrads, Margaret C. American Paintings and Sculpture at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kern, Steven, et al. A Passion for Renoir: Sterling and Francine Clark Collect, 19161951. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996 Christie's. Important American and European Paintings and Drawings from a Distinguished Private Collection. Auction catalogue. New York, 5 June 1997. Simpson, Marc. "Robert Sterling Clark as a Collector of Sargent." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 5547. Robertson, Bruce, ed. Sargent and Italy. Exhibition catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. Conforti, Michael, et al. The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2006. McCauley, Elizabeth Anne, Alan Chong, Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, and Richard Lingner. Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barboro Circle. Exhibition catalogue. Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum distributed by Antique Collectors' Club, 2004. Adelson, Warren, et al. Sargent's Venice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. Kilmurray, Elaine, and Richard Ormond. John Singer Sargent. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Publishing, 1998. Llorens, Tomàs. Sargent/Sorolla. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Petit Palais; Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Fundación Caja Madrid, 2006. Merrill, Linda, ed. After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting. Exhibition catalogue. Atlanta: The High Museum, 2003. Witty, John. Posing a Visual Stance: Tracing John Singer Sargent's Participation in an International Aesthetic. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Witty, John. A Venetian Interior: Spatial Study in Tones. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Pilgrim, James. The Young Sargent and Italian Painting. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Pilgrim, James. Verbal Description and Reflection. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Feiman, Jesse. John Singer Sargent and the Painter's Science. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2010. Feiman, Jesse. Venetian Interior, 188082: Verbal Description and Personal Reflection. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2010. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Paintings on Exhibition, July 1968. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1968. Sancho, Victoria A-T. Away for Venice or Away from Venice: John Singer Sargent's Venetian Interiors. Course paper, Art History 555: Whistler, Sargent, and American Cosmopolitanism, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2001. Alcauskas, Katherine. John Singer Sargent's Skillful Mélange: Old Meets New in The Daughters of Edgar Darley Boit. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Sullivan, Alice Isabella. John Singer Sargent's A Venetian Interior. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2010. Grosvenor Gallery. Grosvenor Gallery. Summer Exhibition, 1882. Exhibition catalogue. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1882. Grieve, Alastair. Whistler's Venice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Ormond, Richard. John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors. London: Phaidon Press, 1970.

Provenance

The artist, by gift to Jean-Charles (1840-1901) and Marie (1844-1924) Cazin, Paris (probably 1881–82); Constant Coquelin, Sr. (1841-1901), Paris, by gift; Mme Meiris, Paris, by gift; [Georges Bernheim, Paris (by 1913)]; [M. Knoedler & Co., Paris, 25 September 1913, sold to Clark 29 November 1913]; Robert Sterling Clark (1913-1955); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.