A girl with a rope of onions over her arm at an open window

A dark-haired girl stands against a brown wall in a white blouse with the sleeves rolled, a black shawl over her shoulders and a long pale skirt, and looks out at us. A heavy braid of pale onions hangs from her raised left arm to below her waist, each bulb painted with a loaded stroke of cream and rose; more are gathered in her right hand at the hem. Through the small window behind her a bright canal opens up — blue water, a red-brown campanile and moored boats. Inscribed and signed at the centre 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.