Born in Italy on January 12, 1856, John Singer Sargent was the son of an expatriate Philadelphia couple who had taken up a rather nomadic European lifestyle. Young John showed artistic ability early on and trained at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence, later completing an apprenticeship with French portrait master Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran.
Though Sargent's mother Mary was often in ill health, she was proud of her son's talent and encouraged him even as a child to be goal-oriented and to never start a new work until the previous one was complete. To Mary's credit, Sargent was known for his industrious focus throughout his career and, unlike many of his contemporaries, rarely seemed to succumb to creative temperament.
A Painter of Portraits
Sargent's first venture into portraiture was his painting of family friend Frances "Fanny" Watts. Fanny's portrait was entered into the 1877 Paris Salon, a gentle likeness that reflected Sargent's training with Carolus-Duran, pleased both his mentor and his family, and served as a respectable debut.
Sargent came to portrait painting at a time when the practice was still in high demand and a continuing sign of status among the wealthy and powerful. Despite the then-emerging field of photography, cameras of the era were too primitive and unable to capture or enhance a person’s image like a painter could. In this regard, a skilled artist could be quite favored by moneyed circles – as long as he or she made his subjects look good.
Handsome and professionally charming, Sargent experienced an initial wave of success as a portrait painter in Europe. He soon found himself in disfavor, however, following the 1884 Paris exhibition of Portrait of Madame X (or Portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau). This famed Sargent opus was a hot scandal at the time, showing the Lousiana-born wife of French financier Pierre Gautreau in scantily strapped black velvet, with more than a soupçon of ivory white shoulders and cleavage on display.
Sargent went to England and rode out the Madame X uproar from a distance, and eventually his reputation rebounded. Author Henry James was a great fan of the artist, and Sargent was also given the opportunity to paint the portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson, another well-known writer of the day. Using his innate talent and gift of perception, Sargent created a memorable image of the quirky, slender Stevenson seemingly caught up in thought while pacing past a seated Mrs. Stevenson. "[A]n open box of jewels," Mrs. Stevenson praised, though Stevenson himself declared the work to be "too eccentric to be exhibited."
While portraiture made his name and opened many golden doors, Sargent often felt the need to paint other subject matter. Sargent's spectacular 1882 El Jaleo is a prime example of such, with a fine sense of Sargent drama and shadow spotlighting a near life-sized scene from a Spanish gypsy dance. Though bought by a patron soon after its completion, El Jaleo is now at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Fame on Two Continents
Sargent voyaged between England and the United States throughout the rest of his life and earned lofty commissions for his paintings of the European and American upper classes. He was appointed an official artist of World War I and produced the intense Gassed, which depicts the trauma of soldiers following toxic exposure to chemicals used on the battlefield. Sargent was also made a member of the British Royal Academy of Artists, and though he was recommended for knighthood, he politely declined the title.
Legacy
In his later years, when Sargent felt he had had enough of the somewhat sycophantic field of portraiture, he worked on paintings and sketches made throughout his travels. Sargent preferred the convenience and quickness of using watercolors while abroad, and his efforts in that medium are often regarded as brilliantly expert, particularly in the portrayal of light.
John Singer Sargent died in 1925. His paintings are in numerous museums throughout the world, while Sargent’s Boston Public Library murals collectively known as the Triumph of Religion have inspired controversy, admiration and awe for nearly a hundred years. Sargent toured the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa to research this series, which features various religious practices and beliefs from ancient times through the early 20th century.
Sargent’s Gassed is on view at London’s Imperial War Museum, and the stunning Madame X still attracts her share of stares at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sources
- John Singer Sargent: His Portrait -- Stanley Olson (St. Martin's Press, 1986)
- The Sargent Murals at The Boston Public Library: History, Interpretation, Restoration
