Ramie Fathy

Demi Fang ’17 is from Dayton, Ohio, on the Architecture & Engineering track of Princeton’s Civil & Environmental Engineering Department.  An active violinist in the Princeton University Orchestra and other classical music ensembles on campus, she hopes to additionally pursue a certificate in Musical Performance.

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Embracing Individuality: John Singer Sargent’s Mr. and Mrs. I.N. Phelps Stokes (1897)

In a Tortoiseshell: Demi’s essay on John Singer Sargent’s painting Mr. & Mrs. I.N. Phelps Stokes places the portrait in the context of its time to argue that the Stokes’ marriage defied Victorian social rules while embracing American values of independence and individuality. The excerpt below is from the essay’s body, which demonstrates excellent close reading of the painting and apt comparison to Sargent’s other paintings during the Victorian era.

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