167.3 x 91.4 cm (65 7/8 x 36 in.)
Oil on canvas

Inscriptions: Upper right: John S. Sargent 1895

Classification: Paintings

Object is currently not on view

Helen Sears was one of two portraits Sargent completed in 1895 when he traveled to Boston to install his first murals at the Boston Public Library. Six-year-old Helen was the daughter of Sarah Choate Sears, a friend and an accomplished photographer, painter, and art patron. Sargent's high viewpoint and tilted perspective serve to silhouette Helen against the dark red carpet, and the creamy tones of her dress and bright illumination of her face lend her an air of childhood innocence, belied in part by her wistful mood as she stares solemnly into the distance. Helen had posed for another portrait by Abbott H. Thayer three years earlier and was a frequent subject of her mother's photographs. Sears sent Sargent her photograph of Helen in the same dress and shoes, prompting him to respond that it, "makes me feel like returning to Boston and putting my umbrella through my portrait. But how can an unfortunate painter hope to rival a photograph by a mother? Absolute truth combined with absolute feeling."

This text was adapted from an entry by Janet Comey in Erica Hirshler, "Impressionism Abroad: Boston and French Painting," exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, 2005.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gift of Mrs. J. D. Cameron Bradley, 1955
Accession number: 55.1116

Provenance/Ownership History: The artist; to Mrs. Montgomery Sears (Sarah Choate), Boston, mother of sitter; to Mrs. J. D. Cameron Bradley (Helen Sears), Southboro, Mass., the sitter, 1935; to MFA, 1955, gift of Mrs. J. D. Cameron Bradley.

This object is included in the following Selected Tour(s):

• American Paintings
• MFA Images: Childhood
• Draft: 100 Works for World Children