"The ARTnews is able to present to its readers this last photograph," read the caption for this portrait of the American painter John Singer Sargent, which appeared with Sargent's obituary in April 1925. Sargent, the article explained, was not fond of having his photograph taken but had agreed to a formal session with Henry Havelock Pierce the summer before his death. Celebrated for his scandalous portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau, better known as Madame X, Sargent perfected a style that was characteristically sensuous as well as stately. Pierce's photograph emulates the more aristocratic qualities of the artist's subjects, borrowing a pose familiar from many of Sargent's portraits.

Henry Havelock Pierce (born 1875)
Gelatin silver print, 1924
Published April 18, 1925 and January 1987
Private collection

Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs
National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution

Close