Provenance
Purchased by Hugo Reisinger [1856-1914], New York;[1] his wife, Edmée Busch Reisinger [later Mrs. Charles E. Greenough, d. 1955], New York; her son, Curt H. Reisinger [d. 1964], New York; gift 1948 to NGA.
[1] [The first paragraph of this note was published in 1998 in the NGA systematic catalogue entry. The second paragraph adds further explanation and was published in 1999 in the catalogue of the Sargent exhibition shown in London, Washington, D.C., and Boston.] This information comes from a 21 April 1912 letter written by the American artist Gari Melchers to Frederick B. McGuire, Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Melchers, who was in Europe for most of 1912, had been asked by the Corcoran to serve as the chairman of its 4th Biennial jury, and he wrote to McGuire: "Let me suggest a very beautiful little picture of Sargents which was bought by Mr. Hugo Reisinger in London last summer [1911], 'A seated girl with a shawl' perhaps you could secure that from our friend Reisinger." (Original correspondence is in The Corcoran Gallery and School of Art Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files; kindly provided by Marisa Keller, Archivist.) This information is at odds with a 6 December 1948 letter from Curt Reisinger's secretary to John Walker, then Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Art, that says "The Sargent, called 'Nonchaloire [sic]', was bought by the late Hugo Reisinger from C. L. Hinds (Mrs. Lewis Hinds), London, in December 1912." The Melchers correspondence indicates that Reisinger was the acknowledged owner of the painting before December 1912. The painting was first shown in the summer 1911 exhibition of the New English Art Club in London. Paintings in the exhibition were for sale, and it is possible that is where Reisinger purchased it; however, there are no records of sales or purchasers' names (letter of 5 August 1996 from Margaret Thomas, Archivist to the New English Art Club, in NGA curatorial files).
The Sargent catalogue raisonné archive contains a photocopy of a letter, from an untraced source, written by the artist to Mrs. Lewis Hind on 29 April 1911: "I promised to let you know when I had done certain things to the little picture of the woman on the sofa, in case you should wish to buy it for your German friend. She now has a head and hands and I [am] sending her to the New English [Art] Club where she [will] be on sale at the price of 300 pounds..." This would appear to explain the information cited above; apparently Mrs. Hinds did purchase the painting for Mr. Reisinger. (Elaine Kilmurray and Richard Ormond, eds. _John Singer Sargent_. Exh. cat. Tate Gallery, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Washington, D.C., 1999: 260.)
Accession Number
1948.16.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 63.8 × 76.2 cm (25 1/8 × 30 in.) | framed: 82.87 × 96.2 × 6.99 cm (32 5/8 × 37 7/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Curt H. Reisinger
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Nonchaloir (Repose) (1911) is one of Sargent's late interior paintings—a departure from the society portraits that had defined his career toward the more intimate subjects that he increasingly preferred. The title, meaning 'nonchalance' or 'carelessness' in French, suggests the relaxed ease that the painting's figure embodies: a woman reclining in an interior with the casual grace that the title describes. The 1911 date places this during the period when Sargent was deliberately reducing his portrait practice and focusing on the watercolors, landscapes, and genre subjects that gave him more artistic satisfaction. The interior, with its furniture, its decorations, and the specific quality of indoor light that Sargent rendered with unmatched subtlety, provides the context that gives the figure's repose its meaning: the interior is the private space where social performance gives way to personal ease. His treatment of the interior—.combination of furniture, fabric, and light that creates the atmosphere of domestic comfort—demonstrates the skill that his portrait practice had developed, applied now to a more private subject. The painting also reflects Sargent's growing interest in the decorative dimension of interior painting—the arrangement of shapes, colors, and textures within the enclosed space of the room.
Cultural Impact
Sargent's late interior paintings influenced how domestic repose was represented in 20th-century art, establishing the relaxed interior as a significant subject. The paintings influenced later artists who similarly found subjects in domestic comfort rather than social performance. Nonchaloir influenced how Sargent's late career was understood, documenting his shift from society portraiture to more intimate subjects.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it represents Sargent's shift from the society portraits that had defined his career to the more intimate subjects that he increasingly preferred—the woman reclining in a private interior embodies the relaxation that public portraiture could not provide, and the painting argues that personal ease deserves the same artistic attention that social performance had received.
