“In Capri, housetops are the world” –  John Singer Sargent.

Sargent visited the island of Capri in the summer of 1878 staying in the village of Anacapri which was popular with artists at the time. He met and became friends with the English painter Frank Hyde who persuaded him to lodge at the Pagano Hotel. It was near the town square and was a haven for visiting artists. 

In September 1878 Sargent, signed the Hotel Pagano guest register and moved in.

Hyde later recalled how they saw women performing tarantellas on a flat roof: 

We watched the effect of the graceful figures, silhouetted against the fading twilight, and, for a background, Vesuvius with his dark purple mantel and crown of fire.

Capri Girl on Rooftop is currently on show at the Sargent & Paris exhibit  the Met Museum in NYC. Sargent dedicated the picture “to my friend Fanny”- presumably Fanny Watts, who modeled for the first portrait he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1877.

The painting shows a young woman—very likely Rosa (called Rosina) Ferrara—dancing the tarantella, a traditional folk dance associated with courtship, to the beat of a tambourine. It is one of several rooftop scenes Sargent painted during his time in Capri, and one of many works in which Ferrara appears. The painting reflects Sargent’s attention to the island’s distinctive architecture, his interest in music and dance, his sensitivity to the fleeting effects of light, and his fascination with his model.

Sargent wrote in his diary:

A pale pink twilight wrapped them like a surreal veil. It wasn’t; it’s just the magic of Capri doing what it does. On one of the white roofs of the hotel, a young woman moved with extreme lightness, moving her sinuous body and long arms to the steps of the dance. The dark sound of a large tambourine echoed in the air, played by another woman seated and leaning against one of the characteristic chimneys of the island. Then came the Tarascone, a dance from the dawn of time. More than a dance, it’s a ritual in which the drum is the voice of God.

“The rhythm of the drum and the steps of the dancer conserve intact the mystery of a vital force passed by oral tradition on the island. It is the moon, herself, the high priestess of this primordial ritual, looking  timidly down over the hills of the Semaphore, sprinkled with a dark green broken only by the white of a few houses.

Rosina Ferrara

Ferrara had modeled many times for Hyde and he introduced her to Sargent who was immediately taken with her striking appearance. 

She was the youngest daughter of Bartolomeo, a fisherman, and his wife, Maria, from Massalubrense, near Sorrento. She lived with her younger sister, Carmela, and other siblings, in a house near the church of San Costanzo.

Rosina was a seamstress like her mother. She earned a living weaving silk hair ribbons for export to Naples. The opportunity to model would have provided significant additional income. She learned the language of the French painters who were the first for whom she modeled. 

Rosina Ferrara, then just 16, became Sargent’s preferred model that summer. Over the course of his stay, he painted at least a dozen works featuring her. It is widely believed that the two had an affair during this time.

Sargent returned to Capri in the autumn of that year and he connected with several other artists living and painting in the abandoned monastery of the convent of Santa Teresa.

In this painting, Sargent depicts a woman – likely Rosina Ferrara – on a rooftop in an everyday scene suffused with evening light and the long shadows of the evening.

 In View of Capri, above, Rosina stands looking away, her hands at her hips. 

Rosina Ferrara’s striking presence drew the attention of several artists beyond Sargent. She also modeled for Frank Hyde, Adrian Stokes, Alfred Stevens, Charles Sprague Pearce, Carl Breitbach, and Charles Caryl Coleman for whom she also worked as a household servant. 

When she posed for the Peruvian painter Federico del Campo, Ferrara was the mother of four year old Maria. The name of the father is unknown.  

In 1891, she married Coleman’sf riend – the American artist George Randolph Barse.

After spending most of that year in Rome they left for America and settled in NYC. From what i have gathered from various sources it appears to have been a very happy marriage. 

In 1904 they moved to Katonah, Westchester County, where his family had some property.

Barse had a successful career as a painter and illustrator. In 1895 he was commissioned to paint  eight allegorical panels for the  Library of Congress, in Washington.

Rosina Ferrara Barse died from pneumonia in 1934 at the age of 72. Four years later, s reported by the New York Times in1938

KATONAH, N. Y., Feb. 25.- George R. Barse, artist, whose pictures hang in many museums, was found dead on his forty-acre estate here today. He had committed suicide by inhaling monoxide fumes from the engine of his automobile after sealing his garage with rags, according to Medical Examiner Amos O. Squire. Mr. Barse, who was 76 years old, left a note saying he had done his work and wanted to go to sleep.

Sargent had an illustrious career as a sought-after artist considered the leading portrait painter of his generation. A prolific and multi-talented, he created approximately  900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. He died in London in 1925 at the age of 69. 

The exhibit at the Met is well worth a visit.