HUDSON, Mrs Charles Isaac (Sara E. Kierstede)
Description:
Town & Country, December 3, 1904 described the picture as follows: ‘In her portrait, Mrs. Hudson looks pale, alert and intelligent, and one is impressed by the refinement of the sitter and also of the portrait as a whole, in its execution. Mrs. Hudson’s gown, with its combination of white chiffon with thin silk with pink roses and touches of green, has a skirt with narrow paniers. The touches of roses and green in the brocade are lightly revealed and subdued to just the right tone. There is a dark green background, and with green shadows in the draperies and cool shadows in the pale flesh tones, the picture has qualities unlike those portraits where the model with rose cheeks suggests a gayer canvas.’
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
Exhibition:
M. KNOEDLER & CO, 355 Fifth Avenue (corner Thirty-fourth Street), New York, November 23 – December 3, 1904.
Bibliography:
Town & Country, New York, December 3, 1904
Town Topics, December 5, 1904
American Art News, Vol. 3. No. 63, New York, January 21st, 1905, p. 2
The sitter, who died late 1930 or early 1931, lived in 1904 at 1, East 76th Street, New York (sold in May 1910). Her husband Charles Isaac Hudson (born 1852) died at Atlantic City, New Jersey, on November 15, 1921 leaving an estate of $1.4 million. Charles Hudson owned a 260 acre estate called Knollwood, near Muttontown, in the East Norwich area on the north shore of Long Island which was later purchased by King Zog of Albania and is today destroyed. They had four children Percy Kierstede Hudson (died 1962), Hans Kierstede Hudson (born 1885, who was married later to Ethel LeRoy DeKoven, niece of Rose Chatfield-Taylor, died 1984); Charles Alan Hudson (1887-1970); and Hendrik Hudson (who was married later to Helen M. Frith on May 19, 1910) and lived at Cedarhurst, and subsequently East Norwich, Long Island, where in 1922 Mrs. Charles Hudson resided too.
Painted at Southampton, according to American Art News, January 21st, 1905. Town & Country, December 3, 1904 wrote the following before giving the description above: ‘A portrait of Mrs. Charles I. Hudson is one of the most charming shown with the examples of Mr. A. Muller-Ury’s latest work to be withdrawn from Knoedler’s to-day. Mrs. Hudson has two sons, one named Hendrik and the other Hans, so this suggests affiliation with the old navigator.’
