Violet Sargent (1870-1955) was born in Florence, Italy, the daughter of Dr. Fitz William and Mary Newbold Sargent. She was the sister of painter John Singer Sargent. After studying at the Accademia delle Belle Arti, she married Francis Ormond.

In 1889, Violet accompanied her brother to America, where she met Saint-Gaudens at William M. Chase’s Tenth Street Studio. Saint-Gaudens was far more intrigued by Violet’s profile than by the dancer providing entertainment at Chase’s party, and asked to do her portrait. Miss Sargent probably sat for the portrait in Cornish during the summer of 1890.

Saint-Gaudens did this relief in exchange for a painting of Homer Saint-Gaudens with his mother by Sargent. That painting is now in the Carnegie Institute Art Museum, Pittsburgh.

Bronze,
50 1/4 x 30 1/2 inches (127.64 x 77.47 cm.)