Carmencita comes to London

Posted on February 11, 2015

Carmencita, the Spanish dancer painted by the American artist John Singer Sargent, will be included in a new exhibition of the artist’s portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Titled Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, the exhibition opens on February 12 and brings together for the first time a collection of the artist’s intimate and informal portraits of his circle of friends, including author Robert Louis Stevenson and artists Claude Monet and Auguste Rodin.

Thought to date from around 1890, Sargent’s portrait of Carmencita, whose real name was Carmen Dauset Moreno, was painted in New York. The painting found critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, and was bought by the French state in 1891, where it can more usually be seen on display at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends is at the National Portrait Gallery from February 12 to May 25. Visit www.npg.org.uk for more details.

Picture: La Carmencita by John Singer Sargent, 1890 © Musée d’Orsay, Paris (R.F. 746)

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.