Portraits of Rich KidsPortraits of Rich Kids

Rorie M. Sherman Editor in Chief

In the 1880s, early in John Singer Sargent's career, he confronted a dilemma when painting children's portraits for wealthy English patrons. The artist, born in Italy to American parents, had studied art in Paris then practiced in France. But his then-audacious portrait of an expatriate woman, “Madame X,” forced him to migrate to England, where the choice of child portraiture proved a decisive step in his career. But should he continue along the line of the sentimentalizing portraits fashionable at the time? It might earn him a pretty penny. Or should he break out into new territory guided by his own tastes and wish to experiment in such new techniques as Impressionism?

Sargent chose the latter course, with...