John Singer Sargent

by Edmund Swinglehurst, John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), the famous portrait painter, spent his childhood traveling around Europe with his American expatriate parents. After studying at Paris's Ecole des Beaux Arts, he launched his career at the Paris Salon. But scandal ensued after he exhibited his most famous portrait, Madame X. The daring (at the time) picture of a beautiful socialite in a provocative dress, her shoulder strap slipping off, created such a stir among its viewers that Sargent eventually repainted the strap into a more proper position and relocated to London. There he continued portrait painting. Creating lush images full of light and incredible brushwork, "[He] breathed new life into the tradition of grand manner portraiture. Like his great predecessors he made his sitters look nobler, more beautiful than they were in reality.... What Sargent brought to the tradition that was new and different was his ability to infuse into his portraits a sense of the immediate and the actual, as if what we see before us is life unfolding as it really is." In 1907, the portraitist abandoned the craft and focused primarily on mural commissions, like the one for the Boston Public Library, and landscape painting.

This book, the catalog to a traveling exhibition that hits the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, among other venues, includes three essays on Sargent's life and work and detailed background information for all the paintings shown. It is a manageable 285 pages, with 171 color and 85 black-and-white images. --Jennifer Cohen

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Edmund Swinglehurst (1917-2005) was a painter and writer. He was born in Chile and educated in England, returning to Chile to teach European history and culture at a private English school. On returning to Europe, he travelled to most of the major cities of Europe to visit their art museums, with special reference to art from the early 19th century onwards. He also studied art in Paris with Fernand Léger at the École des Beaux Arts

Swinglehurst wrote many books on art and travel. He exhibited his artwork in both England and Chile.

Reviews

[Brian Fagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A painter colleague of Sargent said "The supreme virtue in a portrait painter is an eye for character ..." I go through phases of interest in art. When I was in my late teens I took two Art History courses in college and was mainly seeking out and learning about Italian Renaissance painting. In my 20's I became interested in Pop Art and Photorealism. In my 30's and 40's I gravitated to the Impressionists. That remains the largest section of books in my art library. My wife got me interested in abstract expressionism during our 50's. Recently I've felt a pull to learn about 19th century portraitists. The painter in this realm that has most caught my eye is John Singer Sargent, and I found this book at Half Price Books.

I already had an archetype of his style in my mind before I started the book, and while it seems to be accurate, I learned quite a bit about his life and his non-portrait work. The image I had in mind of a typical Sargent portrait was a large scale work, oriented vertically, with a deep dark background, and a staid, reserved and serious man or woman facing us directly, probably somewhat haughtily. The reproductions in the book reveal that Sargent also typically presented us with a delicately rendered face, and broadly realized but sumptuous folds of clothing.

I was surprised, but shouldn't have been, to see that Impressionist technique was a part of his works, too. Peripheral parts of portraits often became less detailed and focused, and gave way to broader brushstrokes and more interplay of color. And some of his favorite subjects were scenes of someone reclining by a stream and children playing, in which he experimented much more freely with Impressionist methods.

Sargent was American-born, but spent most of his life in Europe. He doesn't seem to have gone through much of a struggle establishing himself, as he was very talented early on, had the backing of supportive parents and top quality teachers, and was able to get his works displayed in prominent exhibitions from a relatively early age.

Certainly the most interesting part of his life was the scandal that arose when his portrait of Virginie (Madame Pierre) Gautreau, the wife of a French banker, was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1884. I was vaguely familiar with the painting, but not with the scandal. First of all, the commission was unusual in that Sargent himself sought it out. He was fascinated with this woman, who had a certain "reputation". He thought she had an unusual but striking beauty, and perhaps his curiosity was helped along by the mystery of her alleged conduct - employing a self-created system of marital morality, maybe her husband was, too. That's the "reporter's question system": I'll bed WHO I want, WHEN I want, WHERE I want, HOW I want and WHY I want. I can hear other society women whispering about her "My dear, she isn't received!"

Sargent went to the unusual length to ask a mutual acquaintance to ask Virginie if she would like to have her portrait done by him, a painter of "prodigious talent". She agreed. By today's standards the image seems innocuous, if a bit unusual. "Madame X", as the painting was titled, stands with her head turned in full profile, with pale bare shoulders. Apparently her exact stance was considered vulgar and suggestive, compared to typical portraits of women at that time. Additionally, one strap of her gown is down around her arm. One critic in the paper Le Figaro said "One more struggle and the lady will be free." There are small details in the painting that made references to Diana, the goddess of the hunt. Virginie's mother demanded that the painting be taken down, and actually challenged him to a duel with an unnamed defender of her daughter's honor. Sargent did repaint the strap up over her shoulder.

My favorite painting covered in the book is Lady Agnew of Lochnan, 1893. The subject looks at us with a direct but amused gaze, surrounded by fabrics in every lovely shade of green imaginable.

In 1907 Sargent essentially abandoned portraiture for watercolor work and traveling. His watercolors are amazing in their own right, such as Santiago De Compostela, a work done in melting earth tones, yet strongly composed with a low-angle upward perspective of slanted rooflines.

This book is a good compromise between a brief introduction and an encyclopedic biography, and the choice of paintings selected to lead the discussion is excellent.