British Aristocrats and American Plutocrats in the Age of Sargent

Sir David Cannadine, Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University, President of the British Academy, and Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, explores the interconnected, transatlantic worlds of the traditional and titled British wealth elite and the new American multimillionaires—the former on the defensive, the latter on the rise—during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The lecture investigates why, among both groups, and especially those who formed Anglo-American marriage alliances, Sargent was the man they wanted to paint and draw their portraits.

The exhibition John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal will be open at 5:30 PM for program attendees.