Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911 John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of John Singer Sargent also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Nonchaloir (Repose) is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

A young woman reclines languorously on a cream-coloured sofa, her body enveloped in luxurious fabric - a cream shawl wrapped around her shoulders, and a voluminous silk dress or blanket of pale blue-grey flowing across her lap and cascading to the floor. Her head rests against the back of the sofa, eyes closed or nearly so, her dark hair falling loosely against the upholstery. She appears entirely self-contained, lost in private contemplation or perhaps hovering in that liminal space between wakefulness and dreams. The setting suggests opulence - a glimpse of ornate gilded furniture to the left, the rich brown floor beneath, and decorative molding on the wall behind - yet rendered with remarkable restraint.

The palette is a masterly exercise in restraint and harmony. Creams, pale blues, and silvery greys dominate, punctuated by the deep brown of the floor and the rich darkness of the sitter's hair. The interplay between the cool blues of the silk and the warmer creams of the shawl and sofa creates a subtle tension, while maintaining an overall atmosphere of serenity. Most striking is Sargent's treatment of the silk fabric - capturing its lustre and the way it catches light, rendering its surface with passages of blue, silver, cream, and even hints of rose that somehow coalesce into a convincing whole.

The virtuoso brushwork for which Sargent is renowned is evident throughout, yet employed with particular restraint. In places, especially in the treatment of the silk, one sees fluid, confident strokes that capture the essential quality of the material without laborious detail. By contrast, the face is rendered with greater precision, yet even here there is economy - just enough detail to convey the sitter's placid expression. This judicious variation in technique demonstrates Sargent's mature mastery - knowing precisely when to elaborate and when to suggest.

The composition is deceptively simple but meticulously balanced. The horizontal line of the sofa anchors the painting, while the sitter's reclining figure creates a gentle diagonal that leads the eye from lower right to upper left. This movement is subtly countered by the cascade of silk that flows downward. The sitter is positioned slightly off-center, creating a sense of space and allowing the viewer to enter the scene rather than merely observe it. The cropping of the furniture and decorative elements at the edges suggests a larger space beyond the frame, enhancing the intimate yet expansive quality of the scene.

In "Nonchaloir," we witness Sargent's deliberate pivot away from formal portraiture toward a more personal, contemplative mode of painting. Created during a period when Sargent had grown weary of commissioned portraits, this work - depicting his niece Rose-Marie Ormond - represents a liberation from the constraints of satisfying patrons. Though technically brilliant, it is the painting's emotional tenor that resonates most profoundly. There is a wistful quality to this vision of effortless elegance and leisured contemplation - perhaps Sargent himself sensed that such tranquil moments belonged to a world on the brink of transformation. The painting captures not just a woman at repose, but the twilight of an era, rendered with the knowing hand of an artist who had chronicled its pinnacle and now observed its gentle decline.