Mrs. George Batten

In the 1890s, the beautiful and talented Mabel Batten (ca. 1857–1916) became a prominent patron of music and the arts, establishing a reputation as one of the foremost amateur mezzo-sopranos of her time. She played the piano and guitar and composed her own songs. In London in the late nineteenth century, concert halls were few and far between and musical evenings, at which amateur and professional musicians intermingled, were often held in private homes. It was at such an event that Sargent first heard Batten sing.
Impressed by her performance, Sargent convinced Batten to pose, recording her carried away in the ecstasy of her song, head thrown back, lips parted wide, bosom thrust forward. Sargent deliberately cropped out her arms, narrowing the composition, to accentuate the intensity of her expression.