JOHN SINGER SARGENT | A LANDSCAPE VIEW NEAR NICE

The artist

Estate of the above (sold: Christie's, London, July 24-27, 1925, lot 103)

Mr. Langton Douglas, London (acquired at the above sale)

Sold: Christie's, London, June 30, 1939, lot 120

Mr. Johnson, England

Sold: Christie's, New York, December 7, 1984, lot 242 

Coe Kerr Gallery, New York

Sold: Christie's, London, November 7-8, 1985, lot 32

Private collection, London

Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York, 1987

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Evan Charteris, John Sargent, London, England, 1927, p. 280 (as dated 1876)

Charles Merrill Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, New York, 1955, no. K832, p. 445 (as Landscape View near Nice and dated 1883), repetitiously no. XKY, p. 452 (as Olives near Grasse); 1957 ed., pp. 355, 363; 1969 ed., p. 464 

Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899, New Haven, Connecticut, 2010, vol. V, no. 847, pp. 86, 340, illustrated

According to authors Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, the present work depicts "a grove of olives in the foreground, stretching across a small stream visible bottom right. A row of grassy terraces rises up the hillside toward the whitewashed building upper right, with smoke eddying from its chimney. To the left is a meadow, with a fruit tree in the foreground and part of an avenue of trees visible in the middle distance. The hillside behind is covered with trees, including cypresses, whose dark bluish grey foliage acts as a foil to the brilliant greens and yellows of the olives." (Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899, New Haven, Connecticut, 2010, vol. V, p. 86) The present work, dated circa 1883, was likely executed during of the artist's many visits to see his parents who resided in Nice. Ormond and Kilmurray concluded, "The development of Sargent's landscape style had always been tied to place. . . Now in the South of France, he was inspired by the brilliant light and colour of Mediterranean scenery and subject to new influences." (ibid, p. 74)