An actress raising a gold crown above her loosened red hair

The actress stands full length against a deep blue-black ground, lifting a small gold crown in both hands above her head. Her gown is sewn all over with beetle-wing green and blue that catches the light like scales, banded with gold plaques at the sleeves and hem; a long sage-green cloak falls from her shoulders to the floor. Two thick copper-red plaits hang down the front of the dress almost to her waist. Signed at the lower left.

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was the leading portrait painter of his generation, born in Florence to American parents and trained in Paris under Carolus-Duran. The scandal of Madame X drove him to London in 1884, where he painted the aristocracy and the great merchant families for two decades before abandoning commissioned portraiture in 1907 for watercolour, landscape and mural work. He travelled constantly — Venice, the Alps, Spain, the Middle East, Florida — painting in oil and watercolour with a bravura touch that was widely imitated and never matched. His work is held by the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Tate and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.