Jane Emmet de Glehn, 1873-1961
Wilfrid de Glehn Sleeping, pencil and sanguine

Jane continued to draw and paint, regularly exhibiting her work, particularly her pastel portraits, at the New English Art Club, the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy, but she never pursued her career diligently. She shared exhibitions with her husband at the Fine Art Society, London, in 1913, and with her sister Lydia in 1940. During her travels with her husband and John Singer Sargent she enjoyed painting landscapes in oil, often setting up easel within sight of her companions. While she was no less adept at capturing the effects of light and atmosphere in paint than Wilfrid, like the rest of her sisters she really excelled as a portraitist. In her pastel portraits she worked in a manner readily recalling Watteau or Boucher, and spent the evenings sketching her family and members of their glittering social circle as they read, performed, played cards, or relaxed by the fire. Overall, one has the impression that while portraiture was for Wilfrid a path to financial stability, as well as a genre in which he had shone from an early age, it was for Jane the source of a more personal enjoyment. It was an opportunity to spend time with friends and members of her new family when at the end of a day she was free of domestic and other concerns.

Portrait of the artist's wife, oil on canvas, c. 1925