colonfirth: My favorite mother-daughter portrait with my…
My favorite mother-daughter portrait with my favorite mom #sargent #mfa #nina
It’s a little hard to see, but there actually are three mother-child pairs in this image, because Sargent’s Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel includes this 15th-century madonna-and-child statue in the background:
I love this painting. Sargent captured the relationships of parents and their children so wonderfully, and never in a more evocative way than in this portrait.
The faces of mother and daughter echo each other, the expressions resigned and wistful. They gaze in different directions, but you can feel their bond, Rachel’s head resting on her mother’s shoulder, and the hands, so often the hands with Sargent, expressing things the faces can’t.
The mother, Gretchen Osgood Warren, was a singer, actress, and poet. I found two of her poems with Google; this one is my favorite.
The Wild Bird
Like silence of a starlit sky,
Like wild birds rising into night,
Such was her dying, such her flight
Into eternity.
But I, who dwell with memory,
Dream in my grief that she may soar
Too high, and needing love no more
Come nevermore to me.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1qfk3nQ.
Tags: sargent, Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel, the wild bird.
