MONTAG, 21. SEPTEMBER 2026 
The two portraits, identical in size, originally formed a pair. They belong to a pivotal moment in Sargent’s career, shortly before the major commissions that would establish his international reputation. While they already display the psychological acuity and technical mastery that would come to define his work, their intimate scale and simplicity still reflect the explorations of a young artist, seeking to meet the expectations of a bourgeois clientele while gradually asserting his own distinctive pictorial language.
René, around ten years old at the time, is depicted half-length, turned slightly to his right, while his almost frontal face immediately draws the viewer’s gaze. The composition is strikingly restrained. Yet it is above all the boy’s expression that commands attention. His large, dark eyes, of remarkable intensity, seem to follow the viewer, conveying a psychological depth astonishing for a child’s portrait.
The work reveals an artist already fully in command of his means. Painted several years before the grand society portraits that would establish John Singer Sargent on the international stage, it nevertheless already embodies all the essential qualities of his mature art: psychological insight, compositional elegance, mastery of light, and an extraordinary economy of means, through which just a few deft brushstrokes bring the life of the fabrics, the freshness of the flesh tones and the depth of the sitter’s gaze vividly to life.
A Rare Early John Singer Sargent Portrait to Appear at Auction for the First Time
A urélien Lechertier will offer a rare and important work by John Singer Sargent in its sale at Drouot on 21 September 2026. Sargent was one of the leading figures of international painting in the late 19th century.
Portrait of a Child, René Kieffer, painted by John Singer Sargent in 1879, has remained in the sitter’s family ever since it was painted. Preserved by René Kieffer’s direct descendants for almost a century and a half, the work has never before appeared at public auction.
In 1879, John Singer Sargent was just twenty-three years old. Having settled in Paris several years earlier, he continued his training in the studio of Carolus-Duran, where he quickly emerged as one of the master’s most gifted pupils. His years in Paris would prove formative for the development of his artistic career.
The sitter, René Kieffer (1870–1940), was the son of Eugène Kieffer (1833–1886), an avocat at the Paris Court of Appeal. A member of the Parisian bourgeoisie, Eugène Kieffer commissioned John Singer Sargent to paint portraits of his two children, René and Jeanne.
In 1879, John Singer Sargent was just twenty-three years old. Having settled in Paris several years earlier, he continued his training in the studio of Carolus-Duran, where he quickly emerged as one of the master’s most gifted pupils. His years in Paris would prove formative for the development of his artistic career.
The sitter, René Kieffer (1870–1940), was the son of Eugène Kieffer (1833–1886), an avocat at the Paris Court of Appeal. A member of the Parisian bourgeoisie, Eugène Kieffer commissioned John Singer Sargent to paint portraits of his two children, René and Jeanne.
The two portraits, identical in size, originally formed a pair. They belong to a pivotal moment in Sargent’s career, shortly before the major commissions that would establish his international reputation. While they already display the psychological acuity and technical mastery that would come to define his work, their intimate scale and simplicity still reflect the explorations of a young artist, seeking to meet the expectations of a bourgeois clientele while gradually asserting his own distinctive pictorial language.
René, around ten years old at the time, is depicted half-length, turned slightly to his right, while his almost frontal face immediately draws the viewer’s gaze. The composition is strikingly restrained. Yet it is above all the boy’s expression that commands attention. His large, dark eyes, of remarkable intensity, seem to follow the viewer, conveying a psychological depth astonishing for a child’s portrait.
The work reveals an artist already fully in command of his means. Painted several years before the grand society portraits that would establish John Singer Sargent on the international stage, it nevertheless already embodies all the essential qualities of his mature art: psychological insight, compositional elegance, mastery of light, and an extraordinary economy of means, through which just a few deft brushstrokes bring the life of the fabrics, the freshness of the flesh tones and the depth of the sitter’s gaze vividly to life.
