Lady Agnew’s Prayer, tanka

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

This week for #TankaTuesday, we’re inspired by an ekphrastic prompt of a painting I found on Rebecca Budd’s post: PORTRAIT OF LADY AGNEW OF LOCHNAW BY JOHN SINGER SARGENT on her Chasing Art blog.

Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1865-1932) by John Singer Sargent, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
dear Holy Mother
hear my most humble prayer,
in my time of need
heal this malady that haunts 
let my husband notice me

© Colleen M. Chesebro

This painting was an instant success which elevated Sargent’s reputation as the portrait painter of choice for the London elite. But it also elevated Lady Agnew as a society celebrity.

In my tanka poem, I drew attention to the necklace she wears in the painting, possibly a piece carved in the likeness of the Holy Mother, Mary. I read the lady’s husband was several years older than she was. The look on her face suggests he might not pay much attention to her, especially if she’d been ill. I bet after the public saw this portrait, he never left her side.

Is it just me or is Pexels photos not working on WordPress.com?

69 thoughts on “Lady Agnew’s Prayer, tanka”

    1. Thanks, Dr. B. It’s that look on her face that really got me thinking. At first the necklace reminded me of the Buddha charms many of us wear. Of course, it made sense for the figure to be Christian. So, I let that inspiration guide me.

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      1. I keep my Buddha charm hidden! But, I think that was a good thought of it being a spiritual symbol. (What Buddha charm do you have? Mine is a Buddha head, made from gold gifted by my mother in law and crafted in Kathmandu) 🙏🕉🙏

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        1. Mine is a figure of Buddha in gold gifted to me from my step-daughter, who is part Thai. (We follow Theravada Buddhism). My husband wears his Buddha on a Baht chain. I wear mine on a gold chain. It’s all good energy and protection. (Some of the gold Thai Buddha charms are encased in plastic now).

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          1. Sounds like similarity in our “family” connections but differences in our Buddhist tradition. I never think much about it but having spent so much time in Nepal I suppose I’m a follower of Mahayana. My wife was raised in the Hinayana tradition but our beliefs and practices are almost identical except I tend to read and study sutras a lot more. Thanks for sharing 🙏🕉

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  4. I didn’t even notice the necklace, Colleen. It’s so interesting what draws our eyes and imagination. Regarding her husband, I totally agree it’s likely that “after the public saw this portrait, he never left her side.” 🙂

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  5. I love the backstory, Colleen. How interesting!

    I haven’t tried Pexels, but I do have problems at times with other public domain sites. Then, I take a screenshot of the pic with the snipping tool and use that.

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  7. Colleen – your interpretation was brilliant and insightful. I read that Lady Agnew was unwell when this portrait was painted; hence the luminous skin colour. John Singer Sargent had a special intuition that allowed him to captured the essence of a person. It was a gift but there were drawbacks. John Singer Sargent was known to have said: “Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.”

    To this day, Lady Agnew is remembered for her beauty and grace, as captured in this iconic painting. Many thanks for linking ChasingART! Sending hugs.

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    1. I understand how intimate it could be to paint a portrait… you learn every detail and nuance of the model. Maybe too much… Merril mentioned Madam X in a previous comment. I looked up the painting. I didn’t care for it as much as Lady Agnew. However, I found it interesting that when Sargent was finished, he was happy to be done with his model, as if he had enough of her. He must have been an interesting person! Thanks so much for this beginning education in art appreciation. I’m really enjoyed the experience, and the poetry is outstanding. 💛

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  8. I am delighted that you’ve picked another aspect of this portrait in crafting your tanka Colleen. I saw that possibility in her expression, there are so many subtle suggestions, which enhance the artist’s creativity.

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  10. Your poem is a beautiful interpretation of the painting, Colleen, and your attention to detail is superb.

    Finally, I switched Ongoing Whimsy to an FSE theme. I thought that since OW is still a small blog, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Ha ha! I still have tweaking to do but I feel it is workable. I can’t imagine moving a large blog to an FSE theme unless you have a lot of time to work on it.

    Here’s the link – https://amanpans.com

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        1. This is to great to know… Yikes, I can’t imagine setting this up. I’d have to start all over again with my author blog and poetry blog. Bravo to you for taking this on. Your blog is beautiful!

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          1. Thank you, Colleen. Your blog(s) may be more involved because they connect one to the other. Ongoing Whimsy is small and a stand alone blog so I thought what have I got to lose. I doubt, I will switch Moonlight Musings because it would be too time consuming and I like the theme I’m using.

            One of the FSE themes I tried didn’t automatically add tags. Also, related posts are not automatically added either, which are things I wasn’t aware of. It can be a real headache if you have a large blog.

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          3. I agree, Colleen. I have figured out more and feel a bit more comfortable now. It’s definitely a DIY project. Now I can add Related Posts and change just about anything and everything. The only I can’t do is move the sidebar to the other side. Sigh. The more I experiment, the more I learn. It seems it should be easier to achieve decent results.

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          4. Yeah, there is no way WP can expect most people want to do this type of blog theme. It’s insane. WP told me to switch to a block theme. There isn’t much choice. If I do that I would the FSE theme and get it looking the way I want. My blogs are only linked through the menu. They are two separate blogs but I’ve been struggling to find a theme that works well. I think I’ll end up back with Dara as that works the best for reading. I’m formatting books and creating book covers. When I’m finished, I’ll revisit the blog issues again. Thanks for all of your insight. ❤️

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          5. Last evening and this morning, I started having problems with my FSE theme. Anytime I went to the comment section, my blog would flash and jump so I moved it back to Ixiom. It we annoying to even look at it and I can imagine it would be to others too. I am worried that if it is unstable, I would lose all my work. So, maybe when the FSE themes are perfected I’ll go back. At least I know I can put one together quickly. But for now, I’d rather be safe than sorry.

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          6. I had trouble with Ixion working for me. Are you on Vivaldi? I had problems with WP and Vivaldi. I had to go back to Chrome but I added Duck Duck Go to it to help with security. See, these FSE themes are not ready for prime time. It’s just as I thought. So frustrating! I’m glad you got it stable. What a mess!

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          7. Yes, I am on Vivaldi but it also did the same thing on Firefox and Chrome, and nothing else on my computer was acting that way so I agree the FSE themes are not ready for prime time. I used Ixion before I made the switch and it worked okay. I told Hugh about my problems since he asked which FSE theme I used. I thought about trying other FSE themes or contacting the HE’s but I was more concerned about losing my blog. I sure am glad I didn’t try to switch my bigger blog. Whew!

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          9. Yes, I should have contacted them however, I can easily go back and see if the problem is still there. Amazing that my old theme was intact when I switched back. Plus, maybe going out of the FSE theme and then returning to it may resolve the issue. We’ll see.

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          11. I switched OW back to the FSE theme and all was the same as I left it! Amazing! So far no issues so we’ll see, Hugh contacted the HE’s that there should be a demo for the FSE themes so we can see what our blog will look like before we switch. IMO, WP could have done much better in promoting the FSE themes.

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          15. Could be, Colleen! I also had the shaking on Firefox. I always run a test on all of my browsers, and reboot my computer as well. So far, no problems today.

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          16. I bought a new iMac this year. I can’t use Firefox at all. I have to sign into every single site every single time I visit anyone! I can’t figure out how to get it to stop. Vivaldi runs really slow on my Mac. Then I get that shivery stuff going on. I’m back on Goggle, because Safari has few free extensions to help me see the type better. I did add DuckDuckGo privacy essentials to Chrome and that is working better. Also, the book formatting program I use only works off of Chrome and Firefox! I love Firefox if I could get it to work.I’ve tried everything with the privacy settings and it still makes me sign into every site. It’s frustrating. I’m glad this is working out for you. I think WP has some issues… and the shaking may be coming from them.

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    1. That’s what I thought, too… I love how this painting has inspired so much poetry. We all saw something different. I bet the painting is spectacular in the museum. I love the brush strokes showing the detail on the silk dress. The colors are so pleasing.

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  12. Colleen, I love poems with a back story and am glad you did some research on this enigmatic young woman. The tanka captures what very well may have been the case for her ❤ Great choice of ekphrastic image to write to.

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  17. I read a bit about the Lady as well. Seems later in her short life – she ended up having to sell the painting in order to pay bills…

    (Wiki)… According to the Scottish National Gallery, “the cumulative cost of sustaining celebrity with style obliged Lady Agnew to sell her own portrait”.[18] The painting was acquired with assistance from the Cowan Smith Bequest Fund in 1925.[19] It was retitled as Lady Agnew of Lochnaw at her request (formerly it had been titled simply Lady Agnew). There are two letters from her about the sale of the painting in the gallery’s archives. The first of these indicates that she had decided against letting it go to an American in New York and had offered it to the gallery for £4,000.[20][21] At the time Noel Agnew commissioned the portrait, Sargent’s fee for a three-quarter length portrait was about £500.[22] After the gallery was extended around 1978, the additional area allowed space for the portrait to be displayed.[23]

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