SARASOTA, FLA. — On the second day of Sarasota Estate Auction’s weekend sale, January 7-8, a charcoal on paper portrait of Elizabeth Mills Reid by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) took off, surpassing its $10/20,000 estimate to bring $69,300, including buyer’s premium. This piece came from consignors in Sausalito, Calif. It ended up selling to a phone bidder in Virginia. Elizabeth Mills and John Singer Sargent were both confirmed at Holy Trinity in 1874. As the two became more prominent in their respective fields the two united once again in the creation of this iconic charcoal. According to the Reid Hall archives, the original 1912 charcoal portrait sketch of Elizabeth Mills Reid is yet to be found. The archive’s image of the 9¾-by-7½-inch charcoal (a photograph) on its website appears to be the same as the lot offered in this sale. Sargent’s subject, Elizabeth Mills Reid, was one of the leading female philanthropists of the early Twentieth Century, the daughter of Darius Ogden Mills, one of the wealthiest men in America. The sale did well over half a million dollars for auction results. Watch for a further review of it in an upcoming issue.