The man in the background is the husband of Mrs Phelps Stokes, posing as a surrogate for a Great Dane. Note the Renaissance elbow.
allusion
How the grand-daughters of the Duchess of Devonshire posed for the triple portrait and referred back to any orgiastic scene of bacchanalian revelry.
Two triple portraits of ladies of the nobility, which alluded to two quite racy paintings of drunken feasts, and a goddess with 8 breasts. What is going on?
How Sargent’s portrait of a young New York bride turned into a provocative account of The New Woman.
The Eclectic Light Company 