John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Elisabeth Mills Reid, Charcoal on Paper. Signed and dated. Elizabeth Mills and John Singer Sargent were both confirmed at Holy Trinity 1874. As the two became more prominent in their respective fields the two united once again in the creation of this iconic charcoal. According to the Reid Hall archives the original 1912 charcoal portrait sketch of Elizabeth Mills Reid is yet to be found. Their image of the charcoal (a photograph) on their web site appears to be the exact same as we have here.Born in Florence, Italy to a New England doctor and wife, John Singer Sargent became a leading portrait and figure painter of subjects in international society during the Gilded Age. Late in his career, he was a leading proponent of watercolor as a respectable medium for finished work.His American parents lived in Europe most of their lives and followed the social season between the capital cities. Traveling continuously with his parents, he showed early art talent and was encouraged by his mother, an amateur painter. In Rome at age 12, he studied with Carl Welsch, a German-American artist and in 1870 at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. In Paris, he was accepted in 1874 at the Ecole des Beaux Arts but switched to the less academically oriented atelier of Carolus Duran, who had major impact on Sargent's style. Elizabeth Mills Reid (the Subject) one of the leading female philanthropists of the early 20th century was the daughter of Darius Ogden Mills. Her father was one of the wealthiest men in America as the first bank west of the Rocky Mountains, the founder of the bank of California and his work in the California railroad. Their family legacy includes Mills Field (now San Francisco International Airport), Mills Peninsula Medical Center, Mills Building and Tower, the New York herald tribune and Reid Hall. Reid hall began as an American Girls Club in Paris encouraging artistic and academic opportunities for young American women. During World War I it was an American Red Cross and then became an academy for women’s studies with the help of Columbia’s President Lee Bollinger. Her lasting legacy will be the hospitals, which she not only financially supported, but her time and dedication she took with the staff creating standards above any other in the industry. Her commitment to the red cross and the aid she provided throughout the wars. Her support for women’s ambitions, creativity, and academic possibilities through support groups, fundraising events, and women’s studies. Reid Hall in Paris was bequeathed to Columbia University in 1964.Overall size: 19 1/4 x 15 1/4 in.Sight size: 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.