An Interior in Venice, by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). 1899. Oil on canvas. H66 x W 83.5 cm. Courtesy of the Royal Academy, accession no. 03/1387. Diploma work, 1900. Downloaded from Art UK for purposes of non-commercial educational research. [Click on the image to enlarge it].
After spending the summer and autumn of that year with society hostess Ariana Curtis, and her husband Daniel, in the elegant Palazzo Barbaro, Venice — soon to be the setting of Henry James's The Wings of the Dove (1902) — Sargent painted this picture of them with their son and daughter-law as a gift for the elder Mrs Curtis. What strikes us as splendid now, with its seemingly casually applied highlights on the chandelier and candelabrum enlivening the dark, high-ceilinged interior, and the relaxed poses of these elegantly dressed figures, displeased his hostess: for all her high-class aplomb, she could, apparently, be "both hypersensitive to criticism and uncompromising in her own opinions. She rejected Sargent’s group portrait of the family ..., because it did not flatter her vanity by representing her as younger than her years and because her son’s nonchalant pose upset her strict notions of decorum" (Ormond and Kilmurray 62). Yet the contrast between the formal setting and pleasant disposition of the two couples of different generations is one of the delights of the painting. The men are typical in the way they interact (or fail to interact) with their respective spouses: the older man is simply absorbed in his reading, while the younger one lounges, clearly taking pleasure in engaging with his wife. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Link to Related Material
Bibliography
An Interior in Venice. Art UK>. Web. 17 February 2026.
Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray. John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits (Complete Paintings, Vol. I). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
Created 17 February 2026