Cash, Coronets and Charcoal: Kenwood House’s portraits of America’s aristocratic ambitions

Cash, Coronets and Charcoal: Kenwood House’s portraits of America’s aristocratic ambitions

A room in North London currently echoes with the lost voices of wealthy American ladies who cross the Atlantic to marry into the British aristocracy. It’s an exhibition of portraits, and on the centenary of John Singer Sargent’s death, English Heritage managed to gather 18 of his magnificent portraits at Kenwood for the first time. Several of these portraits have never before been on public display. In a way, it’s a dual exhibition, as it’s of p…