(Italian/America, 1856-1925)

Peter Augustus Jay, 1880, signed and dated upper left "John S. Sargent 1880", oil on canvas, 18-1/4 x 15 in.; fine period ornate carved gilt wood frame, possibly original, 28 x 24-3/4 in. 

Provenance: Collection of the Sitter, until 1933; by descent to his widow, Mrs. Peter Augustus Jay; Private Collection; Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas (label verso); Collection, New York, NY; Adelson Galleries, New York, NY (label verso); Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, (label verso), June 2015, accompanied by copy of sale invoice for $2,200,000.00; Property From An Important Estate, Maryland

Provenance note: the exact order of galleries listed in provenance is somewhat speculative

Exhibited: Sixth Biennial Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Contemporary American Artists, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., December 17, 1916-January 21, 1917, no. 206; Privately Owned, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., February 10-March 30, 1952, no. 268, ill.; Portraits of Children, 1860-1960, Portraits, Inc., New York, NY, April 18-May 9, 1960, no. 52.

Literature: Downes, William Howe. 1925. John S. Sargent: His Life and Work. Boston, Massachusetts, p. 263; Mount, Charles Merrill. 1955. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York, p. 429, 1967 ed., p. 337.; McKibbin, David. 1956. "A Complete Checklist of Sargent's Portraits," in Sargent’s Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, p. 103.; Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray. 2016. John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings. New Haven: Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, p. 50, 239.; Gallati, Barbara Dayer. 2004. Great Expectations: John Singer Sargent Painting Children. Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Museum in association with Bulfinch Press, p. 156. 

Note: Peter Augustus Jay was four years old when he was painted by Sargent in Paris. He was a direct descendent of both John Jay and John Jacob Astor, both  American "royal" dynasties. This was a seminal period in Sargent's career, and his portraits were changing the very nature of Academic art. Painted with the classic Sargent light, and his bold and immediate brushstrokes, the portrait is intimate in scale and directly engages the viewer. Sargent conveys a childhood of ease, happiness, and obvious privilege, which brings the portrait into direct relationship with his most important society portraits.