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Exhibit:  Sargent
Title:  Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
Dimensions:  174cm x153.8cm (68.5inches x 60.5inches)

Medium:  Oil in Canvas Painted 1885-1886
Location (museum, gallery or other):  Tate Gallery, London

Location URL:  http://www.tate.org.uk

Painting Description and Background Information:  

Overwhelmingly held to be favored of all his works, then and today and universally believed to be one of his masterpieces. Nurtured in the beautiful setting of Broadway in the heart of the Cotswolds.

Carnations,Lily,Lily,Rose, the title lifted from the light-hearted lyrics of a popular song,is a triumph of Sargent's use of light, in a way which would never be equaled in quite the same way. The idea for the painting was first conceived while Sargent was staying with the Vickers family.

The white lilies in full bloom around the playing Vickers Children, in the garden would be the frame work for an ambitious project to capture the perfect sunset, in terms of color and natural highlights, shadows and light on the scene accompanied but the artificial light of the Chinese lanterns, at the moment of twilight when the setting sun and the lanterns were at perfect equilibrium.

Ye Sheperds Tell Me
by Joseph Mazzinghi

Ye Sheperds tell me, tell me have you seen,
have you seen My Flora pass this way?
In shape and feature beauty's queen.
In pastoral, in pastoral array.

Sheperds tell me, tell me have you seen,
have you seen, My Flora pass this way?
Have you seen, tell me Sheperds have you seen,
tell me have you seen, My Flora pass this way.

A wreath around her head, around her head
she wore Carnation,Lilly,Lilly,Rose.
And in her hand a crook she bore.
And sweet her breath compose.

Sheperds tell me, tell me have you seen,
have you seen My Flora pass this way?
Have you seen, tell me Sheperds have you seen
tell me have you seen My Flora pass this way.

The Beauteous, the beauteous wreath that
decks, that decks her head, forms her
description, her description true. Hands
lily white, lips crimson red, cheeks of rosy, rosy hue.