The Sargent Family

American 19th Century

National Gallery of Art

A man, woman, four children, and a black and white dog stand and sit in a row in a wallpapered room with a checkerboard patterned floor in this horizontal painting. The woman and children have pale, peach skin and the man has a ruddier complexion. The man stands to our left wearing a tall, black, brimmed hat, a black coat, a high-necked white shirt or kerchief at the neck, and knee-length breeches over white stockings. His pointed shoes and breeches have silver and gold buckles. He stands with his body angled to our right but he turns to look at us. He tucks his right hand, closer to us, into the opening of his jacket and he clasps the hand of a young girl with his other. This young girl and the three other children all have blond hair and green eyes, and all wear white, scooped-neck garments. The girl holding the man’s hand turns to look up at him, and she touches his coat with her other hand. To our right, another child swings a ball at the end of a long string for the small dog who leaps up for it. Near the right edge of the painting, a woman sits in a high-backed, upholstered chair with a baby on her lap and a toddler leaning on her legs. The fabric of the chair is patterned with brown and white stripes, with a vine pattern on the white stripes. The woman’s body is angled to our left, and she looks in that direction, almost in profile. She wears a ruffled white bonnet, a long black dress with white at the neck and elbow-length cuffs, and a strand of gold-colored beads. She has brown eyes and rosy cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. The baby sitting in the woman’s lap reaches for the ear of the toddler leaning on the far side of the chair, elbows propped on the woman’s legs. A door behind the man is ajar, leading into another room with a diamond-patterned floor. The wall running behind the group has brown paneling along the bottom half and the top half is patterned with pine-green diamonds on a seafoam-green background. Two wooden chairs with upholstered seats sit against the wall behind the children. Above the chairs, a window opens onto a landscape with a tree, fence, and hills painted in peanut brown and beige. A rust-red curtain has been pulled up and to the sides of the window, which is flanked by two bird cages, each holding one butterscotch-yellow bird. The floor is made up of a checkerboard pattern of harvest yellow and brown squares that have been painted with wavy lines to suggest texture or pattern. The perspective of the room is flattened, and the proportions of some of the people are a little off, especially the man, whose head seems too large for his body. The poses of the people are also stiff, though some of them are connected by gestures.