Breakfast in the Loggia

Maker(s)
Artist: John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Historical period(s)
1910
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W: 51.5 x 71 cm (20 1/4 x 27 15/16 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1917.182a-b
On View Location
Freer Gallery 10: A Perfect Harmony
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
eating, United States, woman
Provenance

To 1917
Robinson and Farr, Philadelphia to 1917 [1]

From 1917 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Robinson and Farr, Philadelphia on March 1, 1917 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] Object file.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Robinson and Farr
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

In 1894, Charles Lang Freer went to Italy to visit the villas and gardens recommended by Charles Adams Platt, the architect who later designed the Freer Gallery of Art. The trip strengthened Freer's admiration for Italian Renaissance architecture and may have influenced his decision to buy this painting in 1917.  Breakfast in the Loggia represents a Florentine villa on a bright autumn morning. A marble statue of Venus, the embodiment of beauty, presides over the women dining in the sun-dappled arcade, which resembles the loggia of the Freer Gallery courtyard.

Published References
  • Robert Holland. The Warm South: How the Mediterranean Shaped the British Imagination. Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales. fig. 16.
  • Maurizio De Vita. Il Castello di Torregalli: Storia e restauro di un complesso fortificato del contado fiorentino. Florence. .
  • Kate F. Jennings. John Singer Sargent. Greenwich, Connecticut. .
  • William Howe Downes. John S. Sargent: His Life and Work. Boston. opp. p. 288.
  • Capolavori nei secoli: Enciclopedia di tutte i popoli in tutti i tempi. 12 vols., Milan, 1961 - 1964. vol. 10: p. 198, no. 124.
  • Burns A. Stubbs. Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints, and Copper Plates by and Attributed to American and European Artists, Together with a List of Original Whistleriana, in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 1, no. 2, 2nd ed. Washington, 1967. pl. 11.
  • Ideals of Beauty: Asian and American Art in the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Thames and Hudson World of Art London and Washington, 2010. pp. 18-19.
  • Unknown title. vol. 7 New York, January 1934. p. 47.
  • Unknown title. vol. 21 New York, June 1933. p. 97.
  • Diego Zancani. How We Fell in Love with Italian Food. Oxford, United Kingdom. p 109.
  • Unknown title. vol. 11 New York, October 1932. p. 140.
  • Thomas Lawton, Linda Merrill. Freer: a legacy of art. Washington and New York, 1993. p. 243, fig. 173.
  • Sir Evan Charteris. John Sargent. New York. p. 291.
  • Charles Merrill Mount. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. London. p. 360.
  • Edwards Park. Treasures from the Smithsonian Institution., 1st ed. Washington and New York. p. 363.
  • Charles Merrill Mount. The Works of John Singer Sargent in Washington. vol. 49 Washington. p. 475.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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