John Singer SargentThe most celebrated American portraitist

First created 20 Jul 2015. Version 1.0 11 August 2015 Jerry Tse. London.

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Sargent was the greatest and most successful society portraitist of his time, painting the rich and famous with an elegance and flair that no contemporary artist could match.

Greatest portraitist of his time

An essentially shy and private man, he was charming and accomplished and, although he never married, was devoted to his family and circle of friends.

His natural fluency and the brilliant accuracy of his portraits brought him outstanding success in America and England.

1856-1925

An American, born and raised in Europe

John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, Italy, in 1856. His childhood was spent travelling from one European city to another.

Sargent’s mother, Mary Singer (left). John Sargent with his sister Emily (right), who was born in Rome, 1857. John was particular devoted to Emily.

John Sargent had a wide-ranging education but very little formal tuition.

He grew up to be a highly literate and cosmopolitan young man, accomplished in art, music and literature. He was fluent in French, Italian and German.

He was also a highly accomplished pianist of professional standard and a passionately keen musician.

At the age of 13, he received some watercolour lessons from Carl Welsch, a German landscape painter. His mother commented that John “sketches quite nicely & has a remarkably quick and correct eye. If we could afford to give him really good lessons, he would soon be quite a little artist.”

Early talent at 14

At 17 he was described as “wilful, curious, determined and strong” (after her mother yet shy, generous and modest (after his father).

A noticeable quality of his early letters and drawings is the desire to describe his observations accurately.

Sargent joined the atelier of Carolus Duran at 18 (1874-78). Paris had tens of atelier academies, in which a group of students worked with a single master concentrating on drawing and printing from a living model.

Atelier Academy at 18

His teacher Carolus Duran

His teacher’s style

Julian Alden Weir, a fellow American studied in France, met Sargent 1874 and noted that Sargent was “one of the most talented fellows I have ever come across, his drawings are like the old masters, and his colour is equally fine. Sargent’s excellent command of French and his superior talent made him both popular and admired.”

Sargent was considered by everyone who knew him to be modest, charming, accomplished and a lively and generous companion.

In 1876, Sargent crossed the Atlantic for the first time and visited America.

First painting at the Paris Salon

At Cancale in Brittany in 1877, Sargent did ‘plein air’ sketches for his first important subject picture, Oyster Gatherers at Cancale. It was to be his first success, winning him an honourable mention at the Paris Salon of 1878 and reflected the artist’s interest in the Impressionists. His second copy of the painting was sent to the US for exhibition and was also a success. He was now professional artist

First major success

In 1879, he visited Spain, studied Velazquez’s painting technique, with passion. Spain re-awakened his own talent for music and which found visual expression in his El Jaleo.

The inspiration of Spain

Later in life Marie-Louise (girl in the painting) recounted no few than 83 sittings for the portrait. It is an uneasy double portrait with Marie’s hand quenched in fist, trying to sit still. Marie also mentioned battle about costume and hair arrangement. Note the abstract background.

A tense double portrait

A follower of Velazquez

Sargent (left) method of working directly on the canvas with a loaded brush, derived from Velazquez (right). It was an approach that relied on the proper placement of tones of paint. This approach permitted spontaneous flourishes of colour not bound to an under-drawing. Note how the clothing were painted on the two portraits.

This unusual composition, including two large Chinese vases, with striking lighting effect, echoes an interior Velazquez’s Las Meninas (see next slide).

Velazquez’s interior

On the left is Velazquez's Las Meninas. Frans Hals (right) was the artist who, other than Velazquez had a profound effect on Sargent. When visited Haarlem in 1880 and Sargent was stunned by Hals’s expressiveness, his verve and bravura and the economy of his brushwork.

Velazquez and Fran Hals

A flamboyant gynaecologist

Like Velazquez Sargent’s best portraits reveal the individuality and personality of the sitter.

“Mrs Henry White” was his first major success, winning more portrait commissions.

The First major commission

Madame Gautreau, also an American, was a fashionable Parisian beauty. Sargent proposed if she would sit for her portrait. She accepted. Sargent was convinced that her portrait would establish his reputation and bring more commission.

Madame X was exhibited at the Salon in 1884. It caused a scandal, due to a shoulder strap had fallen down from her shoulder.

The poor public and critical reception was a disappointment to both artist and model. Gautreau was humiliated by the affair and Sargent would soon leave Paris and move to London permanently. He also repainted the portrait with the strap firmly fastened.

Madame X, a small miscalculation

Move to London

Winning new commissions in England

Initially, the English critics were not warm at first, describing Mrs Henry White as ‘almost metallic’, ‘ no taste in expression, air or modelling’. But soon afterward, Sargent gained the admiration of English patrons and critics.

Sargent developed a realistic, traditional style, but he was also touched by the spirit of Impressionism. This painting shows some Monetesque associations. It shows Monet’s loose style of brushwork and his impression of a scene en plein air.

Friend with Monet

Sargent had probably met Monet as early as 1876. In 1880s when they seem to have become closer. Sargent visited Giverny, bought four of his paintings and painted three portraits of Monet.

A portrait of Monet

Broadway, Cotswolds, an American artist colony

Sargent first visit to Broadway in the Cotswolds England, in 1885. It was there that he made friends with a group of American artists. He painted the painting Carnation Lily, Lily, Rose, in Broadway.

Lily Millet (left), wife of the American artist Frank Millet, was at the centre of the community of artists and writers at Broadway.

The making of a masterpiece

In 1884, Sargent stayed with the Vickers family and painted the two children watering the tall lilies. This seeded the idea of a painting of children surrounded by flowers, in his Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.

In 1885 on a boat trip, Sargent saw two little girls lighting paper lanterns at dusk in a garden.

In 1885, he made this study of this young girl with a paper lantern, with some roses in the background, perhaps trying out the posture and the lighting from the lantern.

- Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

The making of a masterpiece

In Giverny, Sargent also saw Monet painting outdoor recording the different quality of natural lights.

The picture was painted in the autumns of 1885 and 1865 at Broadway, in the Cotswolds.

The two girls were Polly and Dorothy Barnard, daughters of Frederick Barnard, the painters.

They were chosen for their fair hair that complimented the glowing warm light from the lantern, in contrast to the fading natural light at dusk.

They posed for Sargent with their specially made white dresses.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

Camille Mauclair described this painting as ‘an exquisite symphony’ and Vernon Lee wrote that ‘of any pictures ever painted’ it gave her ‘the same artistic happiness as the slow movement of certain Mozart quartets’.

The carnation, lily and rose was a reference to the Renaissance painter of Botticelli, Crivelli and Mantegna. Lily was ideal beauty.

The roses were transplanted and the lilies were planted in pots, to provide the appearance of a luxuriant background.

The painting was painted entirely in the open and at twilight. The short duration of the twilight meant that the canvas was completed over many days, with the girls standing by ready in their white dresses each evening, when the particular light to appear.Sargent complained that on “impossible brilliant colours of flowers and lamps, the brightest green lawn background. Paints are not bright enough.”

This painting was his first major success in the Royal Academy 1887.

Through his friendship with Paul Cesar Hellen, Sargent would meet gaints of the art world including Degas, Rodin, Monet and Whistler.

A very high proportion of Sargent’s non-commissioned paintings were about artists and performers. This one is on the actress Ellen Terry. He decided to paint her portrait after his was bowled over by her performance.

Portrait of an actress

Portrait of Javanese Dancer

Portrait of Spanish Dancer

In 1890s Sargent was at the peak of his fame and reputation. Lady Agnew was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1893 and was hailed as a masterpiece. He became the artist sought after by the nouveaux riches.

Towards the end of the 1890s, Sargent was recognized as the supreme portrait painter of his age. Rodin called him ‘the Van Dyck of our times’.

Lady Agnew

The Society Painter

Growing reputation in America too

In 1907, Sargent refused to relinquish his American citizenship, when he was offered a knighthood, in England.

He painted two US presidents (Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson) and even John D Rockefeller.

In America, Sargent fame and reputation grew too. His first professional trip to New York and Boston bought him over 20 important commission.

Portrait of a comic actor.

Sargent also painted many artists and performers too in America.

In 1886 he sailed to America invited by the art collector Henry Marquand, to paint his wife. America welcomed him with open arms. His one-man exhibition at the St Botoph Club in Boston was greeted with rapture. Prestigious portrait commissions flooded in. Discussion began about the project of mural decorations for the Boston Public Library.

The Boston Mural 1890-1919

The Boston murals, first at the Public Library and later as the Museum of Fine Arts, preoccupied him from about 1891 until 1921. However the murals lack passion and imaginative conviction

In the mural , Sargent moved to a more formal style of painting, in the ‘grand manner’ of Reynolds, classical settings and aiming to create a timeless quality.

The Boston Mural

Abandons portraiture 1909

To Lady Radnor, he wrote in an uncompromising tone, “Ask me to paint your gates, your fences, your barns, which I should gladly do but not the human face!”

By 1907 he was refusing all but a few commissions. His only concession was charcoal sketch, which he could draw rapidly in a brief sitting.

Sargent said “Painting a portrait would be quite amusing if one were not forced to talk while working … What a nuisance having to entertain the sitter and to look happy when one feels wretched”.

Charcoal portraits at $400 each

Watercolour Years

Sargent’s watercolour paintings are different from his oil painting, in that he was not under any obligations for the business needs. These watercolours reveal a more inquisitive personality, more freedom and vivid in execution.

Looking for inspiration in the Middle East

Sargent travelled widely. He travilled to Morocco and Tangiers in 1879-80 and to Egypt in 1890-91.

An Encounter with Bedouins

Sargent spent 5 months in 1905 through to 1906 travelling in the Ottoman Levant. He undertook the trip at least to search for ideas for the Boston murals.

Portrait of the Homeless

Sargent painted some 2000 watercolours. Many of these were scenes in his travel.

In the Villa Gardens

In the Swamp

In the Alpine Summers with friends

In Alpine Landscape

In his later work, Sargent painted mainly for himself and return to his fondness of nature.

In 1918 he was asked by the British Government to be an official war artist. It was his painting of a group of men blinded by mustard gas that became his masterpiece as a war artist.

As a war artist, Sargent showed a remarkable fearless when under direct fire, but he remained at one remove from the horror emotionally, his obsession with observing what he saw with the eyes of a painter in its way protecting him from the full impact.

As a War Artist 1919

In the face of the war

Friend in Switzerland

Sargent painted side by side with Italian artist Ambrogio Raffele, who he admired.

Last Outdoor Painting

1925 Sargent died in his sleep, a day before his travel to Boston to finish the last panel for the Boston Mural.

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Available free for non-commercial and personal use.

The End

Music – Yo-Yo Ma Meditation from Thais composed by Jules Massenet

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