John Singer Sargent Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 - April 14, 1925) was a painter especially known for his fine portraits. He is usually considered an American artist, although he spent most of his life in Europe. Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to USA parents. He studied in Italy and Germany, and then in Paris under Carolus Duran.His portraits are remarkable for subtly capturing the individuality and personality of the sitters; his most ardent admirers think he is equaled in this only by Velázquez. Sargent's Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), done in 1884, is now considered one of his finest works, but it aroused so much negative reaction in Paris at the time that it prompted Sargent to move to London.
Although Sargent spent less than one year in the United States, some of his finest work is there, especially his decorations for the Boston Public Library. Sargent is usually not considered an impressionist, but he sometimes used impressionistic techniques to great effect, and his Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood is beautifully rendered in an impressionist style.
Sargent painted a series of three portraits of Robert Louis Stevenson. The second, Portrait of Robert Lous Stevenson and his Wife (1885), was one of his most famous. It sold in 2004 for US$8.8 million to Las Vages casino mogul Steve Wynn to be installed at his newest casino, Wynn Las Vegas.
Around 1910 Sargent largely abandoned portraits, focusing mostly on landscapes in his later years.
In an era when the mainstream of art was focused on Impressionism and emphasizing artistic individuality, Sargent emphasized his own form of Realism and regularly worked doing commissioned portraits of the rich. This caused him to be dismissed as an anachronism at the time, but appreciation of him as a great artist has grown since his death.
External links
- John Singer Sargent Gallery Major Paintings
- Sargent at Harvard (also includes images of Boston Public Library murals)
- Sargent's 'On his holidays' (1901) at the Lady Lever Art Gallery
- Sargent on Museum Web Paris
- Sargent's "Monet Painting" on Museum Web
- Sargent's "Madame X" on New York Metropolitan Museum of Art site
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