John Singer Sargent Painting Reproductions 7 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
Simplon Pass 1911
Oil Painting
$747
$747
Canvas Print
$60.28
$60.28
SKU: SAR-15254
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71.4 x 91.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71.4 x 91.5 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA
Mrs. Charles Deering 1877
Oil Painting
$786
$786
Canvas Print
$62.93
$62.93
SKU: SAR-15255
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56 x 45.7 cm
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56 x 45.7 cm
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
Rainy Day on the Yacht 1924
Paper Art Print
$48.22
$48.22
SKU: SAR-15256
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 33.6 x 53.3 cm
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 33.6 x 53.3 cm
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, USA
My Dining Room c.1883/86
Oil Painting
$655
$655
Canvas Print
$63.34
$63.34
SKU: SAR-15257
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 73.6 x 60.3 cm
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 73.6 x 60.3 cm
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, USA
Santa Maria della Salute, Venice c.1904
Oil Painting
$772
$772
Canvas Print
$53.30
$53.30
SKU: SAR-15258
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 64.2 x 92.4 cm
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 64.2 x 92.4 cm
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Shadows on a wall in Corfu 1909
Oil Painting
$541
$541
Canvas Print
$59.58
$59.58
SKU: SAR-15259
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71.8 x 56.2 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71.8 x 56.2 cm
Private Collection
The Marchioness of Cholmondeley 1989
Oil Painting
$902
$902
Canvas Print
$58.04
$58.04
SKU: SAR-15260
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 93 x 71 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 93 x 71 cm
Private Collection
Portrait of Mademoiselle Suzanne Poirson 1884
Oil Painting
$828
$828
Canvas Print
$58.60
$58.60
SKU: SAR-15261
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Church of St. Stae, Venice 1913
Oil Painting
$799
$799
Canvas Print
$60.41
$60.41
SKU: SAR-15262
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Portrait of a Capri Girl 1878
Oil Painting
$669
$669
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15263
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 43.2 x 30.5 cm
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 43.2 x 30.5 cm
Private Collection
Palazzo Labia, Venice 1903
Oil Painting
$557
$557
Canvas Print
$59.99
$59.99
SKU: SAR-15264
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: unknown
Private Collection
Vespers 1909
Oil Painting
$708
$708
Canvas Print
$59.43
$59.43
SKU: SAR-15265
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71 x 91.5 cm
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 71 x 91.5 cm
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Theodore Roosevelt 1903
Oil Painting
$998
$998
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15266
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 147.6 x 101.6 cm
White House Museum, Washington, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 147.6 x 101.6 cm
White House Museum, Washington, USA
Helen Sears 1895
Oil Painting
$917
$917
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15267
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 167.3 x 91.4 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 167.3 x 91.4 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
Venetian Glass Workers c.1880/82
Oil Painting
$861
$861
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15268
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56.5 x 84.5 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 56.5 x 84.5 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA
The Garden Wall 1910
Paper Art Print
$50.25
$50.25
SKU: SAR-15269
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 40 x 52 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 40 x 52 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
Robert de Cevrieux 1879
Oil Painting
$891
$891
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15270
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 84.4 x 48 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 84.4 x 48 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
Elizabeth Allen Marquand 1887
Oil Painting
$1010
$1010
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15271
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 169 x 107 cm
Art Museum at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 169 x 107 cm
Art Museum at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA
The Mosquito Net 1912
Oil Painting
$793
$793
Canvas Print
$61.53
$61.53
SKU: SAR-15272
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 57.5 x 72.4 cm
White House Museum, Washington, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 57.5 x 72.4 cm
White House Museum, Washington, USA
Henry Cabot Lodge 1890
Oil Painting
$910
$910
Canvas Print
$51.77
$51.77
SKU: SAR-15273
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 127 x 84.5 cm
Public Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 127 x 84.5 cm
Public Collection
Mrs. Cecil Wade 1886
Oil Painting
$1100
$1100
Canvas Print
$63.34
$63.34
SKU: SAR-15274
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 167.6 x 137.8 cm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 167.6 x 137.8 cm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA
Gassed 1919
Oil Painting
$1158
$1158
Canvas Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15275
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 231 x 611 cm
Public Collection
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 231 x 611 cm
Public Collection
Simplon Pass: The Tease 1911
Paper Art Print
$50.64
$50.64
SKU: SAR-15276
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 40 x 52.4 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 40 x 52.4 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA
Rio dei Mendicanti, Venice c.1909
Paper Art Print
$48.22
$48.22
SKU: SAR-15277
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 36.5 x 52 cm
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, USA
John Singer Sargent
Original Size: 36.5 x 52 cm
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana, USA