John Singer Sargent
American, 1856–1925
Fumée d'ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris)
1880
A woman holds part of her elaborate garment over a silver censer to capture the perfumed smoke of smoldering ambergris. A waxy substance extracted from whales, ambergris was used in some religious rituals and was also said to have aphrodisiac qualities. Sargent began this painting in Tangier, with a model posed on the patio of a rented house, but he completed it in his Paris studio. The finished painting presents a fantasy for Western eyes, combining details of costume and setting adapted from different regions across North Africa.
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | Unframed: 54 3/4 x 35 11/16 in. (139.1 x 90.6 cm) Framed: 64 1/2 x 45 1/2 x 3 in. (163.8 x 115.6 x 7.6 cm) |
Object Number | 1955.15 |
Acquisition | Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955 |
Status | On View |
Image Caption
John Singer Sargent, Fumée d'ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris), 1880, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.15
Select Bibliography
Societe des Artistes Françaises. Le Salon de 1880: Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et lithographie des artistes vivants. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1880.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. 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. Edwards, Holly. Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: Orientalism in America, 1870–1930. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. P. A. F. "Le salon pour rire." Le Charivari 49 (12 May 1880). Loysel, Stéphane. "Le Salon de 1880, IV." L'Illustration 75 (22 May 1880). Anonymous. "Special Correspondence: American Artists at the Paris Salon." The Art Interchange 4 (9 June 1880): 100. Mantz, Paul. "Le SalonVII." Le Temps (Paris), 20 June 1880. Anonymous. The Art Interchange 5 (15 September 1880). Syène, Frédéric de. "The Salon of 1880." American Art Review 1 (October 1880): 536–44. Montezuma. "My Note Book." The Art Amateur 3, no. 6 (Nov. 1880): 113. Burty, Phillip. "Le Salon de 1880, I." L'Art 21 (1880). Burty, Philip. "Le Salon de 1880: Les Etrangers." L'Art, 21 (1880). Hooper, Lucy H. "The Paris Salon of 1880.I." The Art Journal New Series 6 (1880): 221–22. Société des Artistes Françaises. Catalogue illustré du Salon. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Motteroz and L. Baschet, 1880. James, Henry. "John S. Sargent." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 75, no. 449 (October 1887): 683–92. Child, Theodore. "American Artists at the Paris Exposition." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 79, no. 472 (September 1889): 489–521. James, Henry. Picture and Text. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893. Coffin, William A. "Sargent and His Painting." Century Magazine 52, no. 2 (June 1896): 163178. Dixon, Marion Hepworth. "Mr. John S. Sargent as a Portrait Painter." The Magazine of Art 23 (January 1899). Baldry, Alfred Lys. "The Art of J. S. Sargent, R.A. (Part I)." The Studio 19 (February 1900). Baldry, Alfred Lys. "The Art of J. S. Sargent, R.A. (Part I)." The International Studio 10 (March 1900). Brinton, Christian. "Sargent and His Art." Munsey's Magazine 36, no. 3 (December 1906). McSpadden, Joseph Walker. Famous Painters of America. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co,. 1916. Wood, T. Martin. Sargent. Masterpieces in Colour, edited by T. Leman Hare. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1909. Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel J. John Singer Sargent. New York: Federick A. Stokes, 1924. Downes, William Howe. John S. Sargent: His Life and Work. London: Thornton & Butterworth, 1926. Charteris, Evan. John Sargent. London: William Heineman, Ltd., 1927. Hartmann, Sadakichi. A History of American Art. Revised edition. New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1932. Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1955. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four & Exhibit Seven. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958. Mount, Charles Merrill. "Carolus-Duran and the Development of Sargent." The Art Quarterly 26, no. 4 (Winter 1963): 385–417. Martha Kingsbury.. John Singer Sargent: Aspects of His Work. Ph.D. diss.. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University.. 1969.. 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. Ratcliff, Carter. John Singer Sargent. New York: Abbeville Press, 1982. Failing, Patricia. Best-Loved Art from American Museums. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1983. . John Singer Sargent: Drawings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. (exh.cat.).. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and The Corcoran Gallery of Art.. 1983.. Thompson, D. Dodge. "American Artists in North Africa and the Middle East, 1797–1914." The Magazine Antiques 126, no. 2 (August 1984). 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. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. The Orientalists, Delacroix to Matisse: The Allure of North Africa and the Near East. July 1-Oct. 28, 1984. Fairbrother, Trevor J. John Singer Sargent and America. Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1981. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986. Hills, Patricia. John Singer Sargent. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986. Olson, Stanley. John Singer Sargent: His Portrait. London: Macmillan, 1986. Olson, Stanley, Warren Adelson, and Richard L. Ormond. Sargent at Broadway: The Impressionist Years. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Coe Kerr Gallery, 1986. Sweetman, John E. The Oriental Obsession. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Croutier, Alev Lytle. Harem: The World Behind the Veil. New York: Abbeville 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. Volk, Mary Crawford. John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1992. Gost, Roswith. Der Harem. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1993. Fairbrother, Trevor J. John Singer Sargent. Library of American Art. New York: Abrams in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994. Ackerman, Gerald M. American Orientalists. The Orientalists 10. Paris: ACR Editions, 1994. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Promey, Sally M. "`Triumphant Religion' in Public Places: John Singer Sargent and the Boston Public Library Murals." In New Dimensions in American Religious History, edited by Jay Dolan and James Wind, 3–27. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1993. Elizabeth Barillé & Catherine Laroze.. Le Livre du Parfum.. Paris: Flammarion.. 1995.. . John Singer Sargent: Cashmere.. New York: Sotheby's.. December 5, 1996.. Gibson, Clare. Sargent. London: Saturn Books, 1997. Simpson, Marc. "Robert Sterling Clark as a Collector of Sargent." The Magazine Antiques 62, no. 4 (October 1997): 5547. Kilmurray Elaine, and Richard Ormond. "Sargent in Paris." Apollo 148, no. 439 (September 1998): 1322. Prettejohn, Elizabeth. Interpreting Sargent. London: Tate Gallery, 1998. Stanley Meisler.. "John Singer Sargent,". 29:11.. Smithsonian.. (February 1999).:pp. 61-76.. McConkey, Kenneth. A Painter's Painting: John Singer Sargent's A Spanish Woman. London: Pyms Gallery, 1998. Sally M. Promey.. Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's "Triumph of Religion" at the Boston Public Library.. Princeton: Princeton University Press.. 1999.. Christie's, London.. Ottomans and Orientalists, sale June 17, 1999. Herdrich, Stephenie L., and H. Barbara Weinberg. American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2000. Flowers, Charles. "A Curator's Journey: How Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures Grew from Idea to Reality." Journal of the Clark Art Institute 1 (2000): 1221. Conrads, Margaret C. Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s. Exhibition catalogue. Princeton: Princeton University Press in conjunction with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2001. Sagarra, Yoshimi. "Museum in Aroma" Hasegawa Letter 12 (2000). Thiele, Johannes. Aphrodites Welt: Verlockende Düfte. Munich: Marion von Schröder Verlag, 2000. Ormond, Richard. John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors. London: Phaidon Press, 1970. Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings. Vol. 1, The Early Portraits. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Curry, David Park. James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces. VIrgina Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond in association with The Quantuck Lane Press, New York. 2004:p. 82 fig. 3.19. Kilmurray, Elaine, and Richard Ormond. Sargent e l'Italy. Ferrar, Italy: Ferrara Arte S.p.A., 2002. Davies, Kristian. The Orientalists: Western Artists in Arabia, The Sahara, Persia & India. New York: Layfaroh. 2005:detail: p. 18, p. 19, p. 251. Davis, Deborah. Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2003. Allen, Brian T. "Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute." American Art Review: Special edition, The Western Massachusetts Art Trail XVI, no. 3 (2004): 162-169. Adelson, Warren, et al. Sargent's Venice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. Stamelman, Richard. Perfume: Joy, Obsession, Scandal, Sin: A Cultral History of Frangrance from 1750 to the Present. New York: Rizzoli. 2006. Haverkamp-Begemann, Egbert, Standish D. Lawder, and Charles W. Talbot, Jr. Drawings from the Clark Art Institute: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Robert Sterling Clark Collection of European and American Drawings, Sixteenth Through Nineteenth Centuries, at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. 2 volumes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964. Anonymous. "A Single Man: Sargent and Sensuality." The World of Fine Wine 30 (December 2010). Goldin, Marco, and H. Barbara Weinberg. Pittura Americana del XIX: Atti del convegno secolo. Treviso: Linea d'ombra libri, 2008. Marshall, Traute M. Art Museums Plus: Cultural Excursions in New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2009. Mirseyedi, Sarah. Description and ReflectionFumée d'Ambre Gris. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Mirseyedi, Sarah. The Remedy of Color for the Poison of Orientalism?: A Discursive Investigation into Sargent's Fumée d'ambre gris. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Molina, Sylvia. Assignment 1. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, WIlliamstown, MA, 2011. Molina, Sylvia. Sargent's Experience While Studying Abroad. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, WIlliamstown, MA, 2011. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Lazevnick, Ashley. Listening In: Musicality in John Singer Sargent's Early Pictures. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Lazevnick, Ashley. Making Noise in Neapolitan Children Bathing; and Overhearing Sargent. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Paintings on Exhibition, July 1968. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1968. Fairbrother, Trevor J. "Sargent's Genre Paintings and the Issues of Suppression and Privacy." In American Art Around 1900: Lectures in Memory of Daniel Fraad edited by Doreen Bolger and Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. Studies in the History of Art 37, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Papers, 21. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1990. Kilmurray, Elaine, and Richard Ormond. John Singer Sargent. Exhibition catalogue. London: Tate Publishing, 1998. R., J. J. "The Paris Salon of 1880." Our Monthly Gossip. Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science 26 (September 1880): 3835. Mirseyedi, Sarah. The Visuality of Distance and the Materiality of Paint: John Singer Sargent's Fumée d'ambre gris. Qualifying paper, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, 2013. Hirz, Aimee. John Singer Sargent's Fumée d'ambre gris. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Corrales-Diaz, Erin. First Sargent Assignment: Fumée d'ambre gris. Course paper, Art History 513, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Alcauskas, Katherine. Assignment 1, Parts 2 and 3. Course paper, Art History 555, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Steiner, Katie. A Picture in Words: Verbal Description of Sargent's Fumée d'Ambre Gris. Course paper, Art History 555, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Torbert, Amy. Fumée d'Ambre Gris. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Friedman, Hannah. Description and Reflection. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Sullivan, Erin. John Singer Sargent's Exotic Pastiche: Fumée d'Ambre Gris. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2001.Provenance
To unidentified Frenchman, 1880; (Broussod, Valdon et Cie., Paris); to (M. Knoedler & Co., Paris, July 6, 1914); to Robert Sterling Clark, September 10, 1914.