Yorkshire's favourite paintings

This group portrait was painted to mark the 21st birthday of Mabel Frances Vickers (centre). She is shown here with her sisters Florence (left) and Clara (right). The three sisters all have contrasting expressions and poses and Sargent’s use of perspective projects the figures forward out of the dimly lit room they are sitting in. This portrait was painted at the Vickers’ family home, Bolsover Hill in Sheffield.

On travelling to Sheffield to paint the portrait he wrote: "I am to paint several portraits in the country and three ugly women at Sheffield, dingy hole".

John Singer Sargent was born in Florence in 1856, the son of an American surgeon. He studied at the Paris studio of Carolus-Duran (1838-1917), a portrait painter, and remained there as an assistant for a number of years.

He travelled widely across Europe and lived in Paris, but finally settled in London in 1885. He gained an international reputation as a portrait painter, with many of his clients being Americans. However, by 1910 he devoted himself to landscape painting. He died in London in 1925, an American citizen to the end.

Presented by the Hon. Mrs Vickers, 1938

Why the painting was chosen:

Given the rather unfavourable opinion by both Sargent and the Royal Academy, where this painting was voted the worst picture of the year in 1886, it is particularly ironic that The Misses Vickers is one of the most popular paintings in the Museums Sheffield visual arts collection.