John Singer Sargent

(1856-1925)

Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. 26 1/2 X 20 3/4in (67.3 x 52.7cm)

Footnotes

Provenance
The artist.
Gardiner Greene Hammond Jr, the sitter, acquired from the above, 1895.
Frances Lathrop (née Hammond) Helm, daughter of the above, by descent, 1921.
Gardiner Greene Hammond IV, nephew of the above, by descent, 1973.
By descent to the present owner, son of the above, 2013.

Exhibited
Boston, Massachusetts, Copley Hall, Loan Collection of Portraits for the Benefit of the Associated Charities and the North End Union, March 2-23, 1896, p. 34, no. 211. (as Mr. G. G. Hammond, Jr.)
New York, National Academy of Design, Seventy-First Annual Exhibition, March 30-May 16, 1896, p. 56, no. 241.
Boston, Massachusetts, Copley Hall, Copley Society of Boston, Loan Exhibition of One Hundred Masterpieces, March 5-28, 1898, no. 77.
Boston, Massachusetts, Copley Hall, The Boston Art Student's Association, Paintings and Sketches by John S. Sargent, February 20-March 13, 1899, p. 11, no. 44. (as Gardiner G. Hammond, Jr.)
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late John Singer Sargent, November 3-December 27, 1925, p. 8, no. 60. (revised catalogue no. 63) (as Portrait of Gardiner Greene Hammond)
San Francisco, California, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Sargent and Boldini, October 24-November 29, 1959, n.p., no. 12. (as Gardiner Greene Hammond II)

Literature
"The Fine Arts: 71st Exhibition of The National Academy of Design," The Critic, April 4, 1896, vol. XXV (New Series), vol. XXVIII (Old Series), no. 737, p. 243.
"At The National Academy of Design.," The Illustrated American, April 11, 1896, vol. XIX, no. 322, p. 499.
"The National Academy of Design," The Art Amateur, May 1896, vol. 34, p. 129.
"The Spring Academy," The New York Times, March 27, 1896, vol. XLV, no. 13,916, p. 5.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Thirty-Eighth Annual Report for the Year 1913, Boston, Massachusetts, 1914, p. 154.
W.H. Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work, Boston, Massachusetts, 1925, p. 175.
W.H. Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work, London, 1926, p. 175.
E. Charteris, John Sargent, London, 1927, p. 265.
C.M. Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, New York, 1955, p. 435.
D. McKibbin, A Complete Checklist of Sargent's Portraits, Boston, Massachusetts, 1956, p. 100.
C.M. Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, London, 1957, p. 343.
F.A. Sweet, Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Pennsylvania, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966, p. 150.
C.M. Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, New York, 1969, p. 440.
R. Ormond, John Singer Sargent: Paintings, Drawings, Watercolours, London, 1970, p. 249, pl. 78, illustrated.
T. Fairbrother, John Singer Sargent and America, New York, 1986, pp. 184, 205, no. 55.
N.M. Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, New York, 1994, p. 247.
S.L. Herdrich, H.B. Weinberg, M. Shelley, American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent, New Haven, Connecticut, 2000, p. 380.
R. Ormond, E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of The 1890s, New Haven, Connecticut, 2002, vol. 2, pp. 98-99, 183, no. 317, illustrated.

John Singer Sargent had solidified his reputation as a leading portraitist for American and European high society near the end of the 19th century with patrons on both sides of the Atlantic competing for commissions. Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. is a superb bust portrait showcasing Sargent's elegant painterly technique that conveys the gentlemanly stature of his subject. Sargent remained steadfast in his unique and modern approach to realism. A reviewer wrote of his work several years prior to the completion of Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. that "His brushwork boldly challenges you by presenting a definite tone for every inch of surface... he never permits some pleasantly warmed juice to veil his view of air, color and form... he puts all straightforwardly to the touch of right or wrong." (Art Journal, 1893, p. 242) Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. exhibits Sargent's trademark artistic techniques and his maturity as a portrait painter who describes his sitters in truth while revealing their alluring elegance and grace.

By the 1890s, Sargent adopted a soft chiaroscuro technique and fluid brushwork that enhanced the elegance of his portraits. The vigor and freedom of the works that he produced in the United States in the 1890s and 1900s, including the present work, serve as clear indications of Sargent working in an assured style. Sargent used his New England ancestry and his Parisian style to his advantage to establish connections with Boston and New York's elite families. America's wealthy magnates, new and old money alike, began to choose Sargent as their portrait painter in the same way that they chose the architects who designed their illustrious mansions and the gardens that surrounded them, as well as the furniture that decorated their interiors. Sargent represented the best that Europe had to offer them and in return for their patronage, he endowed these magnates and their families with the sophistication and elegance befitting their elevated positions in America's high society.

Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. was born in 1859 at 78 Beacon Street in Boston, Massachusetts to Gardiner Greene Hammond (1832-1903) and Elizabeth Crowninshield Mifflin (1836-1877). Hammond's great grandfather, Gardiner Greene (1753-1832) was a successful cotton planter who operated the vested plantation, Greenfield in Demerara (Guyana) and was regarded as one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston who shipped mass quantities of cotton, coffee, rum, and other goods into the United States. Greene was also noted as the prominent son-in-law to famed painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) as a result of his third marriage to Elizabeth Clarke Copley (1770–1866) in 1800. Upon his death in 1832, Greene left behind a substantial fortune and a social prominence that would descend through the family for generations. Hammond's father was a large property owner in New London, Connecticut with a sizeable family estate and strove to continue the family's successful enterprises. As a young boy, Hammond prepared for college at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and eventually went on to study at Harvard University. He graduated in the class of 1883 and shortly after went west to operate a ranch in California. In 1893, he returned east and married Esther Lathrop Fiske (1868-1955) at her aunt, Miss E. B. Beebe's country home in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Esther grew up as an orphan and possessed an immense fortune from both the Fiske and Beebe branches of the family. Consequently, their union merged two of Boston's finest merchant families and their combined fortunes further established them within Boston's high-society.

The couple made their residence in Boston at 261 Clarendon Street at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street, likely where the present work first hung, and maintained a summer home in Falmouth not far from Esther's aunt. Esther and her brother, George Stanley Fiske (1867–1936) acquired 65 Commonwealth next door to 261 Clarendon and combined the two homes, catching the attention of a gossip columnist at The Boston Daily Globe who remarked that the Hammonds "Will not return to town from Falmouth before November. They are having their town house on Clarendon st connected with the house adjoining on Commonwealth av, and both buildings arranged within for the convenient reception of large numbers of persons, as it is the intention of Mr. and Mrs. Hammond to entertain extensively the coming winter." ("Table Gossip.,"The Boston Daily Globe, July 28, 1895, vol. XLVII, no. 28, p. 21) Hammond made a career as a stockbroker and managed his family's business interests, as well as much of his wife's holdings primarily comprised of real estate. Together they raised six children; Frances Lathrop (neé Hammond) Helm (1894-1973) who inherited the present work, Gardiner Greene Hammond III (1895-1932), George Fiske Hammond (1897-1982), Elizabeth Crownshield Mifflin Hammond (1898-1979), Esther Beebe Hammond, and Mary Crowninshield (neé Hammond) Peterson. The Hammonds first became acquainted with Sargent and his work in 1884, when he painted the portrait of Lady Playfair (neé Edith Russell) (1848-1932) (1884, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts), a cousin of Hammond. According to Hammond's eldest daughter, Frances, in a letter to the director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Gardiner and Sargent exchanged letters regarding the request for a portrait to be completed for both him and his wife and prices were apparently discussed (R. Ormond, E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Portraits of The 1890s, New Haven, Connecticut, 2002, vol. 2, p. 98). By the time that Sargent was ready to complete their portraits upon his return to Boston in April of 1895 to install the first section of the murals at the north end of the Special Collections Hall of the Boston Public Library, Mrs. Hammond was pregnant with their first son. Her portrait was postponed until his next visit to Boston in 1903, when he painted numerous portraits including the portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt (1903, The White House, Washington, D.C.) at the invitation of the President. Sargent did, however, proceed with painting the present portrait of Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. in 1895.

In Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr., Sargent depicts the subject in fashionable, late-Victorian evening attire. Characteristic of Sargent's portraits, he relies heavily on the use of costume to create an air of opulence and to signify the stature of his sitter. Hammond's white evening shirt, stiff collar, and satin puffed tie pinned by a small pearl stud rest in stark contrast to the striking, finely tailored black jacket with a satin roll collar. Sargent employs soft brushstrokes of black, white, and gray for the jacket that gives the fabrics a sensual quality as he masterfully captures the very slight shimmer that light creates on the satin materials. Hammond's facial features are treated similarly with assured, broad and dynamic brushstrokes that provide the portrait with an engaging quality that reaches the life and personality of the sitter. Given the number of commissions Sargent received during this period, Sargent often relied on a repertoire of formats that he reworked and reinvented to stay on schedule. An excellent example of this is evidenced in the similarities in style and execution between the present work and his portrait of the prominent Boston physician and friend of the Hammonds, Dr. Morton Henry Prince (circa 1895, Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, Massachusetts) believed to have been completed during the same visit to Boston. Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. is a commanding portrait in part due to the sitter's refined appearance reflective of his high stature and befitting a descendent of Boston's Gardiner Greene, as well as the strong gaze and enigmatic expression that Sargent has depicted.

Shortly after its completion, the portrait was exhibited at the Copley Society in Boston and at the National Academy of Design in New York. Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. was received with great enthusiasm by both audiences with a reviewer for The New York Times noting "It stands out with great distinction, being vigorously painted, modeled with simplicity, certainty of constructive knowledge, and a realization of form and mass." ("The Spring Academy," The New York Times, March 27, 1896, vol. XLV, no. 13,916, p. 5) The desire to have the present work exhibited shortly after its completion likely came at the urging of both Hammond and Sargent. Such exhibitions were equally a tribute to the ambitions of the patrons to have their portraits seen in prominent public spaces to elevate themselves socially as they were to the talents of the artists. An active member of high society, Hammond would have been cognizant that a portrait from the brush of a leading artist of the day with an exhibition to follow in Boston and New York where some of America's most elite families of the day resided could only benefit his position in society.

In 1898, at the recommendation of Sargent, the Hammonds commissioned Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) to execute pastel portraits of three of the Hammond children at their home in Boston including the celebrated Portrait of Frances L. Hammond as a Child (1898, Private Collection, Santa Barbara, California) depicting the young Francis sitting on a straight, wooden chair lovingly holding a doll wrapped in a blanket. It was also in the autumn of 1898 that the remodeling of the Hammonds' home was completed. The couple and George Fiske held a dazzling housewarming to dedicate their new ballroom the evening of that Thanksgiving, which the Boston Herald described as "A splendid salon, no doubt the finest this side of New York, and the Louise Sieze [sic] decorations are very beautiful. The room extends the whole length of the house and the lighting effects are exceedingly brilliant." ("Social Life.,"Boston Herald (as The Sunday Herald), November 27, 1898, p. 30) About 350 guests were in attendance dressed in handsome gowns and superb jewels including Dr. and Mrs. Morton Prince and the party enjoyed the musical delights of The Salem Cadet band. During Sargent's return to Boston in 1903, he completed the portrait of Esther Fiske Hammond, Mrs. Gardiner Greene Hammond (1903, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts). Slightly larger in size than the present work, she is depicted in a similar bust fashion wearing a white off-the-shoulder evening dress with a fine muslin wrap around her shoulders, pearls, and two gold rings. Sargent beautifully presents her in an engaging pose and delicate smile, expressing both her outgoing personality and her role as a prominent hostess in Boston society.

The marriage, however, did not last and the couple decided to separate in 1910 and officially divorced in 1912. Mrs. Hammond and the children moved to their newly purchased estate known as Bonnymeade in Montecito, California east of the city of Santa Barbara. Mr. Hammond moved to 925 Boylston Street and remained occupied with new pursuits. During 1914 and 1915, Hammond is recorded as traveling in Japan and Korea to make a special study of the political conditions there. In 1916, not long after his return to America, he married his second wife, Mrs. Jeanne Therese (neé Roche) Lang (1872-1947), widow to the Canadian officer, Mr. James Lang, and the couple made their primary residence in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. eventually became ill with cancer and died on January 17, 1921 at Memorial Hospital in New York.

Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. is rendered handsomely with the quintessential hallmarks of Sargent's best portraiture, when he was working at the height of his popularity and abilities. These include firmly modeled facial features, varied, rich tonal qualities and visible, spontaneous brushstrokes. The result is a portrait both visually intelligent and alluring. Gardiner Greene Hammond, Jr. is an engaging achievement in portraiture for its fresh painterly qualities and stands in Sargent's oeuvre as a superb example of the artist imbuing his subjects with an elegant grandeur befitting their character.