Repose
The Spanish Dancer
The Children of Asher Wertheimer
A Dinner Table At Night
The Sitwell Family
Madame X, the scandalous painting that drove Sargent's move to London from Paris. The over-sized portrait hung in Sargent's studio until he sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few years before his death.
Sargent in his studio with the infamous portrait.
Lady Agnew of Lohnaw
Mrs. Joshua Montgomery Sears
Portait of famed actress Ellen Terry in her Lady MacBeth costume. In her Jack the Ripper mystery, author Marantz Cohen sets a conversation between James and Sargent in the studio, at the time of Terry's sitting.
Smoke of Ambergris
Two Women Asleep in A Punt Under the Willows
American John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925) , "...the greatest society portrait painter of his time." is one of my very favorite artists. His elegant, often larger than life portrait work remains unequaled, far as I'm concerned. One sees majesty in Sargent's paintings and even now, when majesty appears to have gone by the wayside, it is thrilling to find it in Sargent's work.
Sketch of his friend, author Henry James, by Sargent.
We've spoken about Sargent before, but my feeling is that you can never have too much of a good thing. Having recently read the wonderful book, WHAT ALICE KNEW A Most Curious Tale of Henry James and Jack the Ripper by Paula Marantz Cohen, a mystery in which John Singer Sargent plays a small role, I realized that another, more comprehensive, showing of Sargent's work was overdue.
Self-portrait.
John Singer Sargent was an American born to ex-pat parents in Florence, Italy in 1856. His parents continued to live and travel abroad after Sargent's mother suffered a breakdown upon the death, in America, of his sister.
Sargent's facility for drawing with a loaded brush - derived from Diego Velazquez - and avoiding the well established rule of sketching and under-painting, made him the object of criticism from some quarters, but on the whole he was a well established and admired painter who glamorized the age he lived in.. Later in life he tired of the portrait business and began concentrating on landscapes and watercolor. Though the high prices he asked for and received for his portrait work had made him a wealthy man.
Sargent's facility for drawing with a loaded brush - derived from Diego Velazquez - and avoiding the well established rule of sketching and under-painting, made him the object of criticism from some quarters, but on the whole he was a well established and admired painter who glamorized the age he lived in.. Later in life he tired of the portrait business and began concentrating on landscapes and watercolor. Though the high prices he asked for and received for his portrait work had made him a wealthy man.
A life long bachelor, Sargent's sexuality is debated even to this day. He lived long enough to see his style of painting go out of fashion. How galling for an artist of his genius to realize he'd outlived his welcome.
Today Sargent's prodigous talent is once again revered.
To read more about Sargent and his work, please use this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment