Mr. Edward L Davis was a former mayor of Worcester
Sargent spent June of 1890 in Worcester, Massachusetts, executing what proved to be among the most important of numerous portrait commissions from New York and Boston clients. His subjects, the socially prominent Mrs. Edward Livingston Davis and her young son, posed for Sargent in the Davises' stable, partly because it was high enough to accommodate the tall easel, and partly because its shadowy volume gave him a dramatic dark ground that avoided allusion to a specific location. This device enabled Sargent to focus on the characters and relationship of the pair. . . Combining a dark palette with strong lighting (as if the pair were standing just inside the stable door) Sargent gained an overall effect of brightness.
(L.A. County Museum of Art)
John Singer Sargent, An Exhibition -- Whitney Museum, NY & The Art Institute of Chicago 1986-1987
Great Expectations: John Singer Sargent Painting Children; 2004-2005