Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimer’s
Jean Strouse, narrated by Susan Eriksen
November 19, 2024 Farrar Straus and Giroux
336 pages
There’s a long standing joke I have with a friend that ultimately points to the type of writer we each are. When visiting a museum, I am drawn to the portraits. The landscapes, and the abstracts, and the modernism really don’t do much for me. She, on the other hand, could stare at a Monet water lily for hours. Which fits with her ability to write the most atmospheric, lyrical stories to contrast with my character driven, high octane romances. We torture each other by each choosing a gallery. Given my particular proclivity towards anything with a human face in it, you’ll understand my love for John Singer Sargent paintings and the stories they spark in my head. He was, after all, the king of portrait painters.
Jean Strouse’s Family Romance is not a Sargent biography. It does sketch out some of the particulars of the artists life, but only in so far as this is needed to explain his relationship with some of his most frequent subjects – the Wertheimer family. Indeed, we also have entire chapters devoted to the Wertheimer family itself, their work as art dealers, and the descendants of those seen in the portraits.
Sargent was unique in his willingness to paint Jews. Indeed, he made several statements indicating he found them more interesting than some of his other subjects. He received quite a bit of critical flack for this, with some critics saying the portraits should not be hung in galleries, others leaving scathing antisemitic reviews, but time would show these portraits would be very successful in the long term. Indeed two of his most lauded works, A Vele Gonfie and Ena and Betty. Ena, the oldest Wertheimer daughter, had a particularly close relationship with Sargent and A Vele Gonfie was partly conceived due to her particular temperament and handsomeness. Sargent was know for painting his sitters as he saw them, unveiling their true personality, and in Ena he found a willing collaborator.
Don’t get your party hats out just yet, though. While Sargent was willing to paint Jews, and had friendly relations with many, his later works including the Triumph of Religion murals show he had some serious misunderstandings about Judaism and what would offend Jews. Indeed, even the Wertheimer family’s relationship to their own Judaism was complicated. I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters describing how the Wertheimer children had varying Jewish observance and the digression into wealthy Jewish families of the time and their trend towards assimilation.
I read Family Romance via audiobook and the text was particularly suited to this format. I found the narration enjoyable and the subject matter easy to follow. Whatever format you select, it will increase your knowledge about the relationship between Jewish people and the art world.