New York Public Library, Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

November 19, 2024 | Time: 6:00 p.m.

Conversation with Hernan Diaz

In commissioning a grand series of family portraits, Asher Wertheimer, an eminent London art dealer of German-Jewish descent, became John Singer Sargent’s greatest private patron and close friend. Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers looks at these twelve portraits—painted by the expatriate American artist at the height of his career—and at the lives of Sargent, his sitters, and their circles amidst the sparkle and strife of the Edwardian age. Jean Strouse’s account illuminates a period of tumultuous social change that saw the declining fortunes of the British aristocracy, the dramatic rise of new wealth on both sides of the Atlantic, and the birth of the modern art market. Sargent brilliantly portrayed these transformations, in which the Wertheimers were key players, and Family Romance brings their interwoven stories to life for the first time.

Strouse will discuss her book with the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Hernan Diaz.

Celeste Auditorium
New York Public Library

476 Fifth Avenue, New York 10018

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