John Singer Sargent
1856-1925
John Singer Sargent was American, the most successful portrait painter of his era, as well as a gifted landscape painter and watercolorist.
Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to American parents. He studied in Italy and Germany, and then in Paris, receiving his formal art education at the École des Beaux-Arts and in the Paris studio of the noted French portraitist Carolus-Duran.
In the early 1880s Sargent regularly exhibited portraits at the Salon, and these were mostly full-length portrayals of women: "Madame Edouard Pailleron" in 1880, "Madame Ramón Subercaseaux" in 1881, and "Lady with the Rose", 1882. He continued to receive positive critical notice.
His best portraits reveal the individuality and personality of the sitters. His most ardent admirers think he is matched in this only by Velázquez, who was one of Sargent's great influences. The Spanish master's spell is apparent in Sargent's "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit", 1882, a haunting interior which echoes Velázquez' "Las Meninas". His "Portrait of Madame X", done in 1884, is now considered one of his best works, and was the artist's personal favorite.
At the time it was unveiled in Paris at the 1884 Salon, it aroused such a negative reaction that it prompted Sargent to move to London. Prior to the Mme. X. scandal of 1884, he had painted exotic beauty such as "Rosina Ferrara of Capri". He moved to London and spent most of his adult life in England, maintaining a studio there for more than 30 years and visiting America only on short trips.
About 1907 Sargent tired of portrait painting and accepted few commissions. He resumed his travels through Europe and to America. He painted constantly but turned to landscapes, producing more than 1,000 oils and watercolors. He also gladly accepted the more demanding challenge of murals for the Boston Public Library, for the Museum of Fine Arts and for the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard on which he was still working at the time of his death.
Sargent died in London in 1925. Criticized for what some believed to be a superficial brilliance, Sargent's portraits fell into disfavor after his death. Since that time, however, these same canvases have been acknowledged for their naturalism and superb technical skill.
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