Description

Jean Strouse’s *Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers* explores the drama, intrigue, and complexity behind Sargent’s twelve portraits of the Wertheimer family. Painted at the height of the artist’s career, these works capture both the personalities of their subjects and the shifting society of the Edwardian era.

Asher Wertheimer, a distinguished London art dealer of German-Jewish descent, commissioned this remarkable series, becoming Sargent’s most significant private patron and a close friend. Through their connections with European aristocracy, powerful financiers, and royalty, the Wertheimers and Sargent moved in the same elite circles. Asher’s decision to bequeath most of the portraits to the National Gallery in London was met with both admiration and controversy, marking a moment when a Jewish family’s likenesses were placed alongside the portraits of Britain’s traditional aristocracy.

Set primarily in England around the turn of the twentieth century, Strouse’s narrative delves into the waning influence of the British aristocracy and the rise of new wealth and power on both sides of the Atlantic. It traces the family’s history back to the Habsburg court in Vienna and follows their story forward into fascist Italy of the 1930s. The book vividly portrays Sargent, his subjects, their friendships, and the worlds they inhabited, offering fresh insight into a time of great social change and the emergence of the modern art market.

Through his masterful portraits, Sargent captured a society in transformation, and the Wertheimers played a pivotal role in that evolution. *Family Romance* brings their intertwined stories to life in a way that has never been done before.