John Singer Sargent | Tyrolese Interior | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tyrolese Interior

Artist: John Singer Sargent (American, Florence 1856–1925 London)

Date: 1915

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 28 1/8 x 22 1/16 in. (71.4 x 56 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: George A. Hearn Fund, 1915

Accession Number: 15.142.1

On view in Gallery 770

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During the summer of 1914, Sargent and some friends visited the Austrian Tyrol. Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia in July marred the summer’s tranquility. "Tyrolese Interior" was probably painted in or near Sankt Lorenzen, in an old castle that had long since been transformed into farmers’ quarters. It shows a peasant family at their midday meal against a background filled with religious objects. When the delivery of ten watercolors Sargent sold to the Metropolitan in 1915 was delayed by the danger of transatlantic shipping, he offered to add to the lot this work, which he called “the best oil picture I did in Tirol [sic] last summer.”