The Wyndham Sisters
by SARGENT, John Singer, Oil on canvas, 292 x 214 cm
The three daughters of the Honourable Percy Wyndham, a wealthy Londoner, appear in this monumental canvas. From the left, they are Madeline Adeane (1869-1941), Pamela Tennant (1871-1928), and Mary Constance, Lady Elcho (1862-1937). By the time that Sargent painted this large work, he was sufficiently well known to require that his sitters pose for him in his studio. He made an exception for the Wyndham sisters, posing them in the drawing room of their family’s residence on Belgrave Square. Seen on the wall above them is George Frederic Watts’s portrait of their mother (private collection), which establishes their genealogy and reminds viewers of Sargent’s ties to older artists.