the comparison between two portraits of women made in 1894 and 1896 will highlight the issue of this work, namely the identity of the artist and that of the art criticism. The first portrait, a lithographic stamp of the artist James McNeill Whistler printed by Thomas Way, is present in several collections, including those of the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and the Library of Congress (Figure 1). The second portrait, a unique pencil by John Singer Sargent, is kept at the National Portrait Gallery in London (Figure 2). Many portraits of this kind of society, showcasing American and English female role models, have been the subject of studies showing how artists like flatter or ridiculating these women. They were indeed perceived as cultural icons and their portraits could be interpreted, to quote the words of a specialist, as ‘the representation of women’s vision by men’. However, it is not so much the construction of femininity through the artist’s eyes that is at stake here, but the way in which that view refers to that of the model. It can be said that both portraits evoke the themes of artistic production and critical reception through a mirror game between the artist and the artist. It should be noted that the two women represented in these portraits were influential art criticisms living and working in London at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Their critical work played an important role in building the public image of Whistler and Sargent, placing them at the level of British and American modern art. These are the American Elizabeth Robins Pennells (1855-1936), critical of the New York Nation and the London Star, and Alice Meynell (1847-1922), critical of the Weekly Register and the Pall Mall Gazette. This work will focus on showing how the two criticisms showcase Whistler’s and Ssilver’s public identity, while at the same time setting out the tensions inherent in the lives of these artists: London and Paris, Royal Academy and New English Art Club, as well as institutional art and the vanguard.