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John Singer Sargent
1856–1925
BirthplaceFlorence, Italy
Death placeLondon, England
BiographyJohn Singer Sargent was born in Florence, Italy, to American expatriate parents. A widely traveled and cosmopolitan young man, he chose painting as his vocation and pursued training in Paris with the popular portraitist Émile Carolus-Duran (1837–1917). As a teacher, Carolus-Duran stressed realism achieved through color and value (the rendering of masses of lightness or darkness) over draftsmanship, following the examples of Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) and Frans Hals (about 1580/1585–1666). Sargent spent a dozen years in Paris honing his skills and after 1877 exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, the prestigious annual exhibition sponsored by the French government.
The negative reaction to Sargent’s infamous Portrait of Madame X or Madame Pierre Gautreau (1883–84; Metropolitan Museum of Art) compelled him to move permanently to London in 1886. A year later, Sargent made the first of many extended visits to the United States, painting numerous portraits—first in Newport, Rhode Island and later in Boston and New York. The artist became famous in England and the United States for his bravura technique, elegant compositions, and the perceptive insight of his society portraits. Sargent also painted wonderfully inventive figural studies that reveal his creativity and experimental aptitude when he chose his own subjects. His artistic ambitions are further illuminated by his many mural projects in Boston including the Public Library (1890–1916), Museum of the Fine Arts, Boston (1916–1925), and the Widener Library at Harvard University (1921–1922). Despite his birth abroad and his expatriate status, Sargent retained his United States citizenship throughout his life and was celebrated as one of the most popular American painters during the turn of the nineteenth century.
The negative reaction to Sargent’s infamous Portrait of Madame X or Madame Pierre Gautreau (1883–84; Metropolitan Museum of Art) compelled him to move permanently to London in 1886. A year later, Sargent made the first of many extended visits to the United States, painting numerous portraits—first in Newport, Rhode Island and later in Boston and New York. The artist became famous in England and the United States for his bravura technique, elegant compositions, and the perceptive insight of his society portraits. Sargent also painted wonderfully inventive figural studies that reveal his creativity and experimental aptitude when he chose his own subjects. His artistic ambitions are further illuminated by his many mural projects in Boston including the Public Library (1890–1916), Museum of the Fine Arts, Boston (1916–1925), and the Widener Library at Harvard University (1921–1922). Despite his birth abroad and his expatriate status, Sargent retained his United States citizenship throughout his life and was celebrated as one of the most popular American painters during the turn of the nineteenth century.