When we first learned that John Singer Sargent had painted a picture capturing a view of Ightham Mote, we were keen to find it, and borrow it for an exhibition. But the opportunity to purchase this large-scale painting for the nation was something we could only dream about.
Measuring 229cm x 143cm, 'A Game of Bowls' depicts the house in 1889, with its American tenant at the time Mary Lincoln 'Queen' Palmer and her daughter Elsie enjoying a game of bowls on the north lawn with their friends (including Singer Sargent's sister Violet).
What is special about this painting?
The painting is an example of Sargent in his experimental mode. It's a large-scale landscape in the English manner, but painted in a modernist French style. Due to the size of the painting, it was clearly composed with exhibition in mind, and it appeared in Joe Comyns Carr's 'New Gallery' the year after it was painted.
A friend and protege of Claude Monet and a member of the British avant-garde, Sargent's work was yet to be fully accepted by either critics of the public at the time A Game of Bowls was painted. As with many of his previous pictures, this was classed as 'eccentric'.
