The Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, has on view, through Dec. 31, 2010, a dazzling assemblage of portraits by American impressionist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).

John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women features approximately 25 of Sargent's paintings of American women. The exhibition demonstrates how Sargent's stylistic choices reflected the character traits of his female subjects.  

Divided into three thematic sections - Women of Fashion, Women of Mystery, and Women of Substance - the exhibition showcases images of women who exerted leadership in the arts and society as well as in their careers and in the intellectual community at the turn of the 20th century.  

John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women features some of Sargent's best-known subjects such as his oft-depicted Capriote model Rosina Ferrara.

Sargent's most famous (or infamous) subject of all, Virginie Avegno Gautreau, the American expatriate who married a French banker, is represented in the exhibition by two preparatory drawings for her controversial 1883-4 portrait dubbed Madame X (Metropolitan Museum of Art). When the final painting was unveiled at the Paris Salon, audiences were scandalized by the likeness; the poor reception caused Madame Gautreau a lifetime of humiliation and Sargent to retreat to London.

“John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women breaks new ground in several ways," commented Dr. Paul S. D'Ambrosio, Vice President and Chief Curator at the Fenimore Art Museum and exhibition organizer.  "It is the first museum exhibition devoted exclusively to Sargent’s portraits of women. It is the first exhibition to directly compare the varied attributes of the women Sargent portrayed and the visual strategies employed by the artist to communicate those characteristics. Lastly, paired with the Museum’s new exhibition Empire Waists, Bustles and Lace, the first exhibition of the Museum’s collection of historic costumes, the Sargent exhibition will be the first to allow visitors to see and experience broader historical context of women’s fashion."

A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition.  A variety of public programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition and will be featured on the Museum’s website at www.fenimoreartmuseum.org.