John Singer Sargent was the pre-eminent society portraitist of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, said Andrew Pulver on Air Mail. Indeed, "sitting for – and paying for – a portrait by Sargent was a mark of social clout in itself". And the American expatriate painter (1856-1925) was well placed to become the chief artistic chronicler of a "phenomenon" that thrilled fin de siècle London: dozens of "wealthy American heiresses" arriving in Britain to marry into the aristocracy.
Collectively – and somewhat dismissively – known as the "dollar princesses", these women "were the reality-TV stars of their day", stalked by gossip columnists and satirised by novelists and songwriters. They were often regarded with snobbery by the British upper classes, and castigated for disloyalty back home. But Sargent, "never slow to spot an opening in the market", painted 30 of them. This show at Hampstead's Kenwood House (briefly home to the "dollar princess" Daisy Leiter, later the Countess of Suffolk) features 18 portraits – eight in oil, ten in charcoal. It is the first exhibition ever devoted to this side of Sargent's career, and gives a "revelatory" glimpse into the Belle Époque.
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