Mademoiselle Jourdain

1889

Sargent painted this portrait of Marie Antoinette Frédérique Jourdain when the sitter was six years old. She was the daughter of two prominent Parisians, close friends of the artist—the inscription along the top is a dedication to the child’s mother. Marie stares out of the painting with a serious, thoughtful expression. The satin bows of her dress resemble flowers, suggesting the bloom of youth. Sadly, she died just one year after the portrait was painted.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	23 5/8 x 17 11/16 in. (60 x 44.9 cm)
Object Number	1955.576
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	Off View

Image Caption

John Singer Sargent, Mademoiselle Jourdain, 1889, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.576

Select Bibliography

Reinhardt Galleries. Exhibition for the Benefit of the Children's Welfare Association. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Reinhardt Galleries, 1933. 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. Illustration. Town & Country (1 December 1932): cover. Cary, Elizabeth Luther. "Youth is Doubly Servedon Canvas." New York Times, 30 April 1933: X8. Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1955. McKibbin, David. Sargent's Boston. Exhibition catalogue. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1956. 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. O'Brien, Maureen C. "John Singer Sargent: Portrait of Ernest-Ange Duez." In The American Painting Collection of the Montclair Art Museum, edited by Kathryn Gamble. Montclair, NJ: Montclair Art Museum, 1979: 1116. 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. Olson, Stanley. John Singer Sargent: His Portrait. London: Macmillan, 1986. 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. Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings. Vol. 1, The Early Portraits. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Gallati, Barbara Dayer. Great Expectations: John Singer Sargent Painting Children. Exhibition catalogue. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum in association with Bulfinch Press, 2004. Gillet, Isabelle. Description and Reflexion, John Singer Sargent, Mademoiselle Jourdain. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Gillet, Isabelle. Mademoiselle Marie Frédérique Antoinette Jourdain. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2011. Gillet, Isabelle. Mademoiselle Antoinette Frédérique Jourdain: A Portrait by John singer Sargent. Qualifying paper, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, 2013. Cohn, Erika. "Mademoiselle X:" John singer Sargent's Portrait of a Girl. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2009. Hirz, Aimee. John Singer Sargent's Mademoiselle Roger-Jourdain: A Closer Examination. Course paper, Art History 555: John Singer Sargent, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2006. Price, Katie. John Singer Sargent's Mademoiselle Roger-Jourdain: A Closer Examination. Course paper, Art History 555: Whistler, Sargent, and American Cosmopolitanism, Graduate Program in the History of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2001. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Paintings on Exhibition, July 1968. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1968.

Provenance

To Mme. René Jourdain (the sitter's mother), Paris; (Hector Brame, Paris); to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York, April 21, 1933); to Robert Sterling Clark, June 21, 1933.