‘A not so subtle misogyny’: Sargent portraits of ‘dollar princesses’ come to London

Portraits of wealthy American heiresses who married into British society will be shown at Kenwood in London

Margaret Daisy" Leiter was just 19 when in 1898 she was painted by the most celebrated society portraitist of the age, John Singer Sargent. Leiter, the youngest daughter of an American retail magnate, was a celebrated beauty who was said to have the loveliest eyes in Washington".

Sargent's resulting portrait, in which Leiter stands full length, exuberantly swathed in fabric, radiates with the monied self-assurance of a young woman fully aware of her own social power.