Vizcaya loans Zorn portrait of James Deering to Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago exhibition features works from artists of the Gilded Age
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens has loaned to the Art Institute of Chicago a 1903, oil on canvas portrait of James Deering (1859–1925), Vizcaya’s creator. The portrait by Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860–1920) is on view in the new exhibition John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age.“Zorn was a contemporary to Sargent,” says Remko Jansonius, Deputy Director of Collections and Curatorial Affairs for Vizcaya. “Both artists captured members of the Deering family in the early 20th century.”
During his lifetime, Zorn was a successful and popular painter in Sweden, where he was born; in France, where he had a studio in Paris for several years; and in the United States, which he visited on seven occasions. His first journey to the United States was in 1893, when he exhibited at the Swedish art section of the world’s fair in Chicago. In the course of this visit, he met Boston collector Isabella Stewart Gardner and Charles Deering (James’s half-brother)—becoming close friends and depicting them at least once. In 1903, Zorn made his fifth journey to the United States. It is likely he painted James Deering’s portrait during this trip while in Chicago, Illinois. The resultant painting was recently donated to Vizcaya in memory of Barbara Strachan Deering Danielson.
The Vizcaya estate is heavily represented in the final gallery of the Art Institute of Chicago exhibition through the work of John Singer Sargent, including his 1917 watercolors: The Loggia, Vizcaya, The Basin, Vizcaya, The Terrace, Vizcaya and The Patio, Vizcaya.
“It is quite remarkable that the hundreds of thousands of people who enjoy this exhibition about John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age will experience the watercolors that highlight Vizcaya’s beauty as their final impression,” says Joel Hoffman, Executive Director/CEO for Vizcaya. “This exhibition shows the deep relationship between Sargent and Charles Deering and the artist’s passion for his brother, James’s, spectacular Vizcaya estate.”
John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age is on view through September 30, 2018 at the Art Institute of Chicago.
