Who is the subject of Head of a Capri Girl?

The model is Rosina Ferrara (1861-1934), a young woman from the island of Capri. She became Sargent's favorite model during his 1878 summer visit.

When did Sargent paint this portrait?

Sargent created this work in 1878 while staying in Anacapri, Italy. He was twenty-two and had recently completed his training with Carolus-Duran in Paris.

What are the dimensions of Head of a Capri Girl?

The oil on canvas measures 43.2 x 30.5 cm (approximately 17 x 12 inches). A related version on cardboard at the Denver Art Museum is slightly smaller.

What style is this painting?

The work is painted in a Realist style, though Sargent's loose brushwork hints at the virtuoso technique he would become famous for in his society portraits.

Where Is Head of a Capri Girl? See It at Private Collection

American painter John Singer Sargent painted this portrait in 1878 during a working holiday on the Italian island of Capri. The subject is Rosina Ferrara, a seventeen-year-old local woman who briefly became his most frequent model that summer.

Sargent had just finished his studies with Carolus-Duran in Paris and was already finding success at the Salon. He traveled to Capri's village of Anacapri, popular with artists at the time, where he met Ferrara through his friend Frank Hyde. Her dark beauty captivated him. Sargent's biographer Evan Charteris described her as "a magnificent type, about seventeen years of age, her complexion a rich nut-brown, with a mass of blue-black hair."

The 22-year-old Sargent produced numerous sketches and finished paintings of Rosina that summer. Artists including Charles Sprague Pearce and George Randolph Barse also painted her. This particular portrait, an oil on canvas measuring 43.2 x 30.5 cm, is considered among the finest of his quick portraits from early in his career. A closely related version at the Denver Art Museum bears a dedication "To my friend Hyde" and the date 1878.