John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

The English painter Frank Hyde introduced John Singer Sargent to Rosina Ferrara during his 1878 visit to Capri. Sargent was mesmerized by Rosina, "an Ana-Capri girl, a magnificent type, about seventeen years of age, her complexion a rich nut-brown, with a mass of blue-black hair, very beautiful." (E. Charteris, John Sargent, New York, 1927, p. 48) He used her as a model in many studies and paintings such as A Capriote (1878, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts) and Capri (1878, Private collection, Tuscaloosa, Alabama).