Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers

Biographer Strouse (Alice James) intricately sketches the longtime relationship between painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) and a wealthy Jewish family in early 20th-century Britain. After being commissioned by art dealer Asher Wertheimer, Sargent spent nearly a decade painting Asher, his wife, and their 10 children. In 1923, the portraits were exhibited in the National Gallery, where the display of “wealthy, London-born Jews of German descent” alongside “Anglo-Saxon aristocrats” elicited mixed reactions. Members of the House of Commons petitioned for their removal, and some of Asher’s associates took “offense” at the frank depiction of his traditionally “Jewish” features, but one art critic characterized the subjects’ wealth and “beauty” as emblematic of the times. Strouse situates the family against the backdrop of a society in which aristocrats’ fortunes were declining, while new fortunes, including those belonging to Jewish families, were “reorder[ing] the transatlantic social landscape.” Nevertheless, Strouse notes, a “profound sense of otherness” characterized the Jewish experience in Britain and reflected a complicated clash between the old and the new that accelerated as the century wore on. The result is a nuanced portrait of a world in flux. (Nov.)