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Gabriel Fauré and Mrs. Patrick Campbell
John Singer Sargent American
Not on view
In June 1898, Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) came to London to conduct his score for Maurice Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande. First performed in Paris in 1893, this Symbolist play tells the story of two doomed lovers. The strong cast included actors Mrs. Patrick Campbell (1865–1940) and John Martin-Harvey in the title roles. Campbell commissioned Fauré to write the work following an introduction by Leo Frank Schuster, a wealthy patron of the arts.
This sketch was executed at a party held at Schuster’s country home on the weekend following the opening of the play. Fauré’s strongly modeled head emerges from a shadowed background, conveyed in slashing strokes of charcoal. Campbell is tucked in behind the composer’s shoulder, looking wistful. Sargent presented this drawing to Schuster as a gift.
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