John Singer Sargent, discouraged by his Parisian…

John Singer Sargent, discouraged by his Parisian failure, had moved permanently to London in 1885.

His work (Self Portrait, 1886, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, UK) is unfortunately too continental and avant-garde to appeal immediately to English taste: the Pall Mall Gazette in 1866 votes his The Misses Vickers (1884, Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, England) the worst picture of the year.

The thirty-year-old painter completes his Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1885-86, Tate Gallery, London), a study of two little girls lighting Japanese lanterns.

The work will receive a mixed reception at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1887, with some criticizing his "Frenchified" style.

However, there will also be much praise, and Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Royal Academy, will encouraged the Tate Gallery to buy the painting later that year.

It will be the first of Sargent's works to be acquired by a public museum.

The painting remains part of the Tate collection and is displayed at Tate Britain.