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The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

John Singer Sargent, 1882

John Singer Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, dated 1882, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The nearly square canvas, more than two metres on each side, shows four young sisters spread across a dim interior. It is an unusual group portrait in which space and shadow matter as much as the sitters.

Where to see it

The painting is held by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, in Boston. Works can be moved, rehung or lent, so check the museum's official website for current display status before you visit.

What to look for in person

Four sisters, four distances

Instead of grouping the girls together, Sargent places each at a different point in the room. The youngest sits on the floor in the foreground, a doll in her lap. Another stands alone to the left, hands behind her back. The two oldest stand further back, near the shadows. Step back from the canvas and notice how the gaps between them feel deliberate. The arrangement reads less like a formal family likeness and more like a quiet moment in a large room.

The dark doorway

Look past the girls into the deep shadow at the centre of the picture. Sargent lets a large part of the canvas fall into darkness, with only faint glimmers of light suggesting the space beyond, including what appears to be a mirror reflecting a window. One of the older sisters is partly absorbed by this shadow. Take time to let your eyes adjust to the darker passages; the contrast between the bright white pinafores and the gloom is central to the painting's mood.

Scale, vases and brushwork

At about 222 by 223 centimetres, the canvas is nearly square and close to life-size, so the girls meet you almost at eye level. Two very tall ceramic vases stand in the room, dwarfing the older sisters and emphasising the height of the interior. Move closer to see Sargent's quick, confident handling of paint: the white fabric, the reflections on the glazed vases and the red screen at the right are built from loose, fluid strokes.

About the painting

Sargent painted this portrait of the four daughters of Edward Darley Boit, an American art collector and amateur painter living in Paris, with the work dated 1882. The setting is generally understood to be the family's apartment in Paris, and the sitters are the four Boit girls at different ages, from a small child to a teenager. Sargent was then a young, ambitious portraitist working in Paris, and the picture shows how willing he was to depart from conventional formulas. Rather than lining the sisters up in a tidy composition, he scattered them across a deep, partly shadowed room and left a broad dark area at the heart of the canvas. Critics and historians have long connected this approach with Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, which Sargent knew and admired; the large interior, the off-centre figures and the play of light and shadow invite the comparison. The painting also reflects Sargent's interest in loose, painterly brushwork, seen especially in the white pinafores and the glazed surfaces of the tall vases. Its nearly square format, about 221.93 by 222.57 centimetres, is unusual for a portrait and gives the room an expansive, almost stage-like presence. Viewers often find the picture ambiguous: the girls are present but somewhat withdrawn, and the darkness behind them leaves much unexplained. That openness is part of why the work continues to draw close looking. When you visit, give yourself time to stand at a distance first, taking in the whole room, and then come nearer to study the surface.

Key facts

More by John Singer Sargent

• Carnation, Lily, Lily and Rose — Tate Britain
• Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau) — Metropolitan Museum of Art
• El Jaleo
• The Misses Vickers

Sources

• Wikidata Q644106
• www.mfa.org