A writer folded into a wicker chair, cigarette between his fingers

A thin man sits deep in a russet wicker armchair with his legs crossed and pulled up, in a black velvet jacket and loose grey trousers; a cigarette is held between the fingers of his raised right hand and a ring shows on the other. His hair falls to his collar and a long moustache covers his mouth. A dark carved sideboard fills the wall behind, with a strip of green-blue at the right, and a white fur rug lies under the chair. Inscribed and signed at the lower right.

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.