John Singer Sargent Painting Reproductions 3 of 12
1856-1925
American Impressionist Painter
John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 - April 14, 1925) was the most successful portrait painter of his era, as well as a gifted landscape painter and watercolorist. He was an American expatriate who lived most of his life in Europe. Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to American parents. He studied in Italy and Germany, and then in Paris under Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran.
Biography and work
Sargent's portraits subtly capture the individuality and personality of the sitters; his most ardent admirers think he is matched in this only by Diego Velazquez, 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 Velazquez' Las Meninas. Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, done in 1884, is now considered one of his best works, and was the artist's personal favorite. However, 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. Many years before the Mme. X. scandal of 1884, he painted exotic beauties such as Rosina Ferrara of Capri, and the Spanish expatriate model, Carmela Bertagna.
Although Sargent lived in the United States for less than one year, some of his best work is in the U.S., including his decorations for the Boston Public Library. He also completed portraits of two U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
Sargent is usually not thought of as an Impressionist painter, but he sometimes used impressionistic techniques to great effect, and his Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood is rendered in his own version of the impressionist style.
Sargent painted a series of three portraits of Robert Louis Stevenson. The second, Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson and his Wife (1885), was one of his best known.
During the greater part of Sargent's career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolours, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. About 1910 Sargent forsook portrait painting and focused on landscapes in his later years; he also sculpted later in life. As a concession to the insatiable demand of wealthy patrons for portraits, however, he continued to dash off rapid charcoal portrait sketches for them, which he called "Mugs". Forty-six of these, spanning the years 1890-1916, were exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1916.
In a time when the art world focused, in turn, on Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism, Sargent practiced his own form of Realism, which brilliantly referenced Velazquez, Van Dyck, and Gainsborough. His seemingly effortless facility for paraphrasing the masters in a contemporary fashion led to a stream of commissioned portraits of remarkable virtuosity. Thus, he was dismissed as an anachronism at the time of his death, but appreciation of his art has since grown steadily, especially following a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1986.
John Singer Sargent is interred in Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey.
Relationships
Sargent developed a close friendship with fellow painter Paul Cesar Helleu. They met in Paris in 1878 when Singer was 22 and Helleu was 18. Sargent painted both Helleu and his wife Alice on several occasions.
Sargent was extremely private regarding his personal life, although the painter Jacques-Emile Blanche, who was one of his early sitters, said after his death that Sargent's sex life "was notorious in Paris, and in Venice, positively scandalous. He was a frenzied bugger." The truth of this may never be established. However most scholars now presume he was homosexual; not only because of his personal associations (such as with Prince Edmond de Polignac and Count Robert de Montesquiou), but because of the way his sensibility shaped his art. This includes not only the sensuality of his male nudes (most particularly his portrait of Thomas E. McKeller), but also the exotic 'otherness' implicit in his general work. It is been suggested that it was this quality which appealed to the sympathies of his many Jewish clients which he painted in the 1890s.
Biography and work
Sargent's portraits subtly capture the individuality and personality of the sitters; his most ardent admirers think he is matched in this only by Diego Velazquez, 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 Velazquez' Las Meninas. Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, done in 1884, is now considered one of his best works, and was the artist's personal favorite. However, 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. Many years before the Mme. X. scandal of 1884, he painted exotic beauties such as Rosina Ferrara of Capri, and the Spanish expatriate model, Carmela Bertagna.
Although Sargent lived in the United States for less than one year, some of his best work is in the U.S., including his decorations for the Boston Public Library. He also completed portraits of two U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
Sargent is usually not thought of as an Impressionist painter, but he sometimes used impressionistic techniques to great effect, and his Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood is rendered in his own version of the impressionist style.
Sargent painted a series of three portraits of Robert Louis Stevenson. The second, Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson and his Wife (1885), was one of his best known.
During the greater part of Sargent's career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolours, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. About 1910 Sargent forsook portrait painting and focused on landscapes in his later years; he also sculpted later in life. As a concession to the insatiable demand of wealthy patrons for portraits, however, he continued to dash off rapid charcoal portrait sketches for them, which he called "Mugs". Forty-six of these, spanning the years 1890-1916, were exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1916.
In a time when the art world focused, in turn, on Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism, Sargent practiced his own form of Realism, which brilliantly referenced Velazquez, Van Dyck, and Gainsborough. His seemingly effortless facility for paraphrasing the masters in a contemporary fashion led to a stream of commissioned portraits of remarkable virtuosity. Thus, he was dismissed as an anachronism at the time of his death, but appreciation of his art has since grown steadily, especially following a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1986.
John Singer Sargent is interred in Brookwood Cemetery near Woking, Surrey.
Relationships
Sargent developed a close friendship with fellow painter Paul Cesar Helleu. They met in Paris in 1878 when Singer was 22 and Helleu was 18. Sargent painted both Helleu and his wife Alice on several occasions.
Sargent was extremely private regarding his personal life, although the painter Jacques-Emile Blanche, who was one of his early sitters, said after his death that Sargent's sex life "was notorious in Paris, and in Venice, positively scandalous. He was a frenzied bugger." The truth of this may never be established. However most scholars now presume he was homosexual; not only because of his personal associations (such as with Prince Edmond de Polignac and Count Robert de Montesquiou), but because of the way his sensibility shaped his art. This includes not only the sensuality of his male nudes (most particularly his portrait of Thomas E. McKeller), but also the exotic 'otherness' implicit in his general work. It is been suggested that it was this quality which appealed to the sympathies of his many Jewish clients which he painted in the 1890s.
272 Sargent Paintings
Venetian Wineshop c.1898
Oil Painting
$686
$686
SKU: SAR-1750
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
The Wyndham Sisters 1899
Oil Painting
$1100
$1100
Canvas Print
$56.10
$56.10
SKU: SAR-1751
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 292.1 x 213.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 292.1 x 213.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
An Interior in Venice 1899
Oil Painting
$807
$807
Canvas Print
$61.85
$61.85
SKU: SAR-1752
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 66 x 83.5 cm
Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 66 x 83.5 cm
Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
Sir George Sitwell, Lady Ida Sitwell and Family 1900
Oil Painting
$1071
$1071
Canvas Print
$64.66
$64.66
SKU: SAR-1753
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 170.2 x 193 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 170.2 x 193 cm
Private Collection
Ena and Betty, Daughters of Asher and Wertheimer 1901
Oil Painting
$1071
$1071
SKU: SAR-1754
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 227 x 170.6 cm
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 227 x 170.6 cm
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
On His Holidays 1901
Oil Painting
$869
$869
Canvas Print
$50.89
$50.89
SKU: SAR-1755
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 137 x 244 cm
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 137 x 244 cm
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom
Lord Ribblesdale 1902
Oil Painting
$888
$888
Canvas Print
$52.11
$52.11
SKU: SAR-1756
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 258.4 x 143.5 cm
National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 258.4 x 143.5 cm
National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Winifred, Duchess of Portland 1902
Oil Painting
$951
$951
SKU: SAR-1757
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Mrs. Fiske Warren and Her Daughter Rachel 1903
Oil Painting
$1261
$1261
Canvas Print
$51.33
$51.33
SKU: SAR-1758
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 152.4 x 102.5 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 152.4 x 102.5 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
An Artist in his Studio 1904
Oil Painting
$798
$798
Canvas Print
$59.33
$59.33
SKU: SAR-1759
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56.2 x 72 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56.2 x 72 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy 1907
Oil Painting
$852
$852
Canvas Print
$60.45
$60.45
SKU: SAR-1760
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71.4 x 56.5 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71.4 x 56.5 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA
The Brook c.1907
Oil Painting
$708
$708
Canvas Print
$50.89
$50.89
SKU: SAR-1761
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 53.3 x 69.8 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 53.3 x 69.8 cm
Private Collection
The Chess Game c.1907
Oil Painting
$730
$730
Canvas Print
$51.13
$51.13
SKU: SAR-1762
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 70 x 55.3 cm
Harvard Club of New York City, New York, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 70 x 55.3 cm
Harvard Club of New York City, New York, USA
Mosquito Nets 1908
Oil Painting
$861
$861
Canvas Print
$61.43
$61.43
SKU: SAR-1763
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 57.2 x 71.8 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 57.2 x 71.8 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, USA
Almina, Daughter of Asher Wertheimer 1908
Oil Painting
$989
$989
SKU: SAR-1764
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 134 x 101 cm
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 134 x 101 cm
Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Cashmere c.1908
Oil Painting
$927
$927
SKU: SAR-1765
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) c.1908/11
Oil Painting
$798
$798
SKU: SAR-1766
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Olive Trees, Corfu 1909
Oil Painting
$606
$606
SKU: SAR-1767
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 51.4 x 61.6 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 51.4 x 61.6 cm
Private Collection
In the Garden, Corfu 1909
Oil Painting
$861
$861
Canvas Print
$50.89
$50.89
SKU: SAR-1768
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 91.4 x 71.7 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 91.4 x 71.7 cm
Private Collection
A Garden in Corfu 1909
Oil Painting
$839
$839
SKU: SAR-1769
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Villa Torre Galli: The Loggia 1910
Oil Painting
$812
$812
SKU: SAR-1770
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
A Waterfall c.1910
Oil Painting
$763
$763
Canvas Print
$50.89
$50.89
SKU: SAR-1771
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 113 x 72.4 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 113 x 72.4 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
The Rialto 1911
Oil Painting
$807
$807
Canvas Print
$50.89
$50.89
SKU: SAR-1772
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56 x 92 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56 x 92 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA
Nonchaloir (Repose) 1911
Oil Painting
$830
$830
Canvas Print
$64.51
$64.51
SKU: SAR-1773
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 63.8 x 76.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 63.8 x 76.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA