John Singer Sargent and the American ‘Dollar Princesses’ Who Rewrote the Rules of Power
They were known as the “dollar princesses.” American heiresses who married into the British aristocracy, swapping their new wealth for titles and the chance to rub shoulders with nobility. Think the Countess in Downton Abbey or most of the cast of The Buccaneers. Between 1870 and 1914, 102 American women kept many of England’s Dukes, Earls, and Lords financially afloat. And in those days, the surest way to signal your high status was to have your portrait painted by John Singer Sargent.
A new exhibition dedicated to the celebrated society painter at London’s Kenwood House puts the spotlight on this phenomenon. “Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits,” on view through October 5, not only brings our attention to some of the artist’s most magnificent masterpieces, it also lifts the veil on his subjects. Though these American heiresses have long been dismissed as fashionable socialites, they made significant contributions to society, politics, and the arts.
Nonetheless, these transatlantic unions were controversial on both sides of the pond. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Whitelaw Reid, the American ambassador to Britain, of how he “thoroughly disliked” the marriages, “which are not even matches of esteem and liking, but which are based on the sale of the girl for her money and the purchase of the man for his title.”
Installation view of “Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits” at Kenwood in London. Photo courtesy English Heritage.
“We are smuggling some quite difficult issues into the exhibition, from misogyny to stereotyping and xenophobia,” said Wendy Monkhouse, senior curator at English Heritage, which owns Kenwood House. “When you look at the so-called ‘dollar princess,’ you’re really looking at a construct made up by people with various agendas over time.”
Among the bigger names on show is Nancy Astor, who was born in Virginia but married the similarly American-born Englishman Waldorf Astor in 1906. She became Britain’s first woman Member of Parliament in 1919, serving until 1945. Another is Consuelo Vanderbilt, whose advantageous marriage to the 9th Duke of Marlborough was unhappy but who, after separating, continued with her own philanthropic endeavors and participated in local politics. During WWI, she chaired the Economic Relief Committee for the American Women’s War Relief Fund.
Following the huge success of last year’s “Sargent and Fashion” at Tate Britain, the Kenwood show is the main U.K. exhibition marking the centenary of Sargent’s death in 1925. With just eight paintings and ten charcoal studies, courtesy of 17 lenders, it is a smaller-scale complement to the sweeping blockbuster “Sargent and Paris,” which is currently on view at the Met through August 3, before opening at the Musée d’Orsay on September 23.
Here is Monkhouse’s pick of three standout works, and women, on show.
Mrs Wilton Phipps (1884)
John Singer Sargent, Mrs Wilton Phipps (1884). Photo courtesy English Heritage.
This early portrait hangs pride of place on the back wall of the final gallery. It stands out for its sitter’s striking features, which are enhanced by the black and white palette. Stylistically, the work has been linked to the influence of Manet, who Sargent greatly admired. He even owned an oil study for The Balcony (1868–69), in which the French painter also placed female figures dressed in white against a black backdrop.
Mrs. Wilton Phipps was born Jessie Percy Butler Duncan in 1855 to an upper-class New York family and inherited wealth that her father had made in banking and railroads. Once in England, she became a local politician and, in 1923, the first woman to chair the London County Council’s education committee. Though through marriage she had never gained a title, in 1926, she was recognized for her important civic work with a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, becoming Dame Jessie Wilton Phipps. After this point, her eyesight deteriorated and for some years she served as chair of the Central Council for the London Blind.
“Each heiress, when you look at them one by one, breaks down the mold,” said Monkhouse. “It’s not all about the nouveau riche coming over with a huge fortune and marrying an aristocrat and being really unhappy. One or two fit that pattern, but the rest really don’t.”
Margaret Howard, Daisy Leiter (1898)
John Singer Sargent, Margaret Howard, Daisy Leiter (1898). Photo courtesy English Heritage.
Here, an American heiress is depicted in the style of a classic 18th-century English portrait by Thomas Gainsborough or Joshua Reynolds. The subject, aged just 19, is Daisy Leiter, one of three Chicago-born daughters of real estate magnate Levi Leiter who went on to marry British peers. Her choice, Henry Howard, 19th Earl of Suffolk, brought her to a new life at Charlton Park in Wiltshire, which she soon set to work restoring to its former glory. She was proudly glamorous and, in later life, became a pilot infamous for flying by helicopter between her house in Cornwall to her suite at the Ritz in London. After the death of her husband, Leiter lived between England and the U.S., eventually reclaiming her American citizenship in 1948. She died in California in 1968.
At one time, Leiter bought a group of paintings from the Howard family as security on a loan she made to her son, the 20th Earl of Suffolk. The terms of her will made it possible for this collection, which includes this Sargent portrait, to be donated to the nation. Thanks to her generosity, the works are kept on permanent public display at Kenwood House.
“She lives here normally and is the anchor picture of the show,” said Monkhouse. “We’ve paired it with Pauline Astor (1898), as they are both Gainsborough-inspired. They’re women as they wanted to be painted, made into Amazons who could be 9 feet tall and very powerful.”
Lady Anne Innes-Ker (1910 and 1911)
John Singer Sargent, Lady Anne Innes-Ker with and without hat (1910 and 1911). Photo courtesy English Heritage.
Though Sargent painted very few portraits after 1907, he began making sensitive charcoal studies by choice. Both of these drawings, in which Lady Anne Innes-Ker meets the viewer with a serious and penetrating gaze, were commissioned by her aunt, who kept the portrait on the left in which she wears a wide-brimmed hat with a bow.
“Her aunt kept the better one,” said Monkhouse. “We’ve looked at photographs of Anne, and she had a very beautiful face but a very strong jaw. Sargent balances it with this phenomenal hat and big chevron stripes and emphasizes the eyes.”
Innes-Ker was born Anne Breese in New York in 1885, but moved with her mother and siblings to England as a child following the death of her father, a stock-broker. A vibrant and outgoing member of the London scene, Breese was in her early twenties when she met Lord Alastair Innes-Ker, a son of the 7th Duke of Roxburghe, and moved into his townhouse. Though not much is known about her life, she served American troops at the Eagle Hut canteen in Aldwych during WWI. One surviving archival photograph shows her dragging a sack of clothing as part of the war effort. “It’s not just little bits of noblesse oblige and the odd sock being knitted,” said Monkhouse. “It’s really hard work.”
It has often been suggested that the artist’s best paintings were of commanding, dynamic women with whom he forged a personal bond. “I think Sargent only agreed to do these portraits if he liked the people,” said Monkhouse. “With the charcoals, the women look the viewer in the eye and obviously were looking the artist in the eye. There’s a real connection there. They’ve never been looked at as anything more than beautiful women in beautiful dresses and the biographical element has slipped by. It was time to re-evaluate the ‘dollar princess.’”
“Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits” is on view at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath, London through October 5, 2025. More