Lady Agnew: A Painting by John Singer Sargent

- Written by the former Director at the National Galleries of Scotland, home to the popular portrait. Among his publications for the National Galleries of Scotland is The Monarch of the Glen, Landseer (2017) - an exploration of Sir Edwin Landseer’s celebrated and iconic painting

- One of the most famous, popular and resonant paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection

- The portrait is currently the spotlight image in MFA Boston’s Fashioned by Sargent exhibition, soon travelling to Tate Britain as Sargent and Fashion

- Written by the former Director at the National Galleries of Scotland, home to the popular portrait. Among his publications for the National Galleries of Scotland is The Monarch of the Glen, Landseer (2017) - an exploration of Sir Edwin Landseer’s celebrated and iconic painting

- One of the most famous, popular and resonant paintings in the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection

- The portrait is currently the spotlight image in MFA Boston’s Fashioned by Sargent exhibition, soon traveling to Tate Britain as Sargent and Fashion

Gertrude Vernon, or Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, was an English woman who married a Scot. The American artist John Singer Sargent excelled as a painter in Europe. His portrait of Lady Agnew was painted in London but has found its definitive home in Edinburgh. All these contexts converge in a supremely beautiful painting which is one the icons of the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. Created in the 1890s, it proved to be a seminal work in the lives of the artist and his subject and has enjoyed a rich afterlife, inspiring artistic and written responses. This book offers a fascinating biography of this most accomplished, evocative and admired of portraits, placing it in the context of Sargent’s career and how he worked, discussing the life of the sitter and unveiling the picture’s rich critical history.

Christopher Baker is an Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University. He was a Director at the National Galleries of Scotland and has worked at Christ Church, Oxford, and the National Gallery in London. Christopher has published and lectured widely on 18th and 19th-century British and European art and the history of collecting and taste and organized numerous exhibitions in the U.K. and internationally. In 2023 he became the Editor of The Burlington Magazine.