A Missing-In-Action Masterpiece?

John Singer Sargent's 'Dr. Pozzi At Home' = Where Art Thou?

JOHN SINGER SARGENT Self Portraits

When I visited the Hammer Museum on Sunday, April 27, 2025, Dr. Pozzi at Home was nowhere to be found. Disappointed, I asked about it and was told it was currently "at The Met." Oh, really? Because a quick check of The Met’s website says otherwise: the painting had been "returned to lender" and was "not on view."

Confused but determined, I did some sleuthing. There’s a chance the painting is on loan to The Huntington, which—luckily for me—is just a short drive away.

But even that’s a guess, based on a photo I found of it hanging in the same room as Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy. It was also spotted as part of the “Fashioned by Sargent” exhibition at the MFA Boston earlier this year.

Tracking the actual location of a masterpiece shouldn't feel like solving a murder mystery, yet here we are.

The truth is, even major museums sometimes don't always seem to know—or can't be bothered to clearly communicate—where their art is at any given moment. Pieces are loaned out, stored, shuffled between exhibitions, or quietly sent for conservation work without public notice.

And if you're a visitor excited to see something specific? Well...good luck.

This isn't just any painting.

For me, Dr. Pozzi at Home is one of John Singer Sargent’s true knockout works: bold, dramatic, and unforgettable. Painted in 1881, it captures Dr. Samuel-Jean Pozzi—a renowned gynecologist and society figure of Belle Époque Paris—draped in a blood-red dressing gown, striking a pose that's both intimate and powerful. The lush color, confident brushwork, and psychological intensity are signature Sargent, who had an almost supernatural ability to reveal personality through posture, fabric, and light.

Sargent, often pigeonholed as a “society portraitist,” was so much more in my opinion. His best work, like this one, fuses the technical wizardry of the old masters with a fresh, almost cinematic immediacy. He could paint silk and skin with such precision that you swear you could feel the textures just by looking. But beyond the surface glamour, Sargent had an incredible gift for capturing the subtleties of character—the private dramas humming beneath the polished exteriors of his subjects.

Which is exactly why I made the trip. Seeing a painting like Dr. Pozzi at Home in person is a completely different experience than looking at a reproduction. You feel the scale, the brushwork, the energy radiating off the canvas. That's what I was hoping for.

Instead, I got a “sorry bout it” from the front desk and a collection that, frankly, didn’t come close to making up for it. The Hammer is a great space with interesting rotating exhibitions, but if I'm being completely honest—their collection is mostly boring as fuck. They can’t afford to have their few showstoppers missing in action.

I still had a blast hanging out with my friend (because good company can make any trip fun), but honestly, we could’ve skipped the drive to Westwood and grabbed coffee closer to home.

I get that museums can only show a fraction of their collections at any one time. Art moves around. But when you have something as spectacular as Dr. Pozzi at Home—and your main collection isn't exactly bursting with heavy hitters—you might want to keep visitors updated, at least with a polite sign or an accurate webpage. Just saying.

I might have been thwarted in my quest yesterday, but one of these days, I will trek this masterpiece down and spend some quality time admiring the good doctor in person. And when I do, you will likely hear about it.

Cheers, my dears, nears, and/or queers!
Clint 🌈✌️

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