Emily Sargent's Watercolors Head to Auction After Decades in a Trunk

Nineteen watercolors by Emily Sargent, the long-overlooked sister of John Singer Sargent, will be auctioned at Dreweatts in Newbury, England, on July 7, 2025. The works, from the collection of great-niece Jemima Pitman, carry an upper estimate of £102,000 ($137,000). They were discovered in a forgotten trunk in 1998, and over a third of the 440 found were donated to major museums by 2022. This sale includes seven works by John Singer Sargent, raising the total estimate to £489,000 ($658,000). Emily, who suffered a childhood spinal injury, began painting in her 30s after her father's death, traveling with John across Europe and North Africa. Her watercolors, such as 'Overlooking Granada' (£4,000-£6,000) and 'A Pier, Hammamet, Tunisia' (£3,000-£5,000), show a quiet, personal style. Dreweatts co-head Will Porter noted the difficulty of predicting market response, as Emily's works are fresh to auction. A previous sale at Sotheby's New York in 2025 saw a desert landscape sell for $7,620. The emergence of Emily as an artist began with exhibitions at Cape Ann Museum in 2022 and at the Met in 2025, complementing the 'Sargent and Paris' blockbuster. Great-nephew Richard Ormond attributed her obscurity to the era's prejudice against professional women artists.