Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism

Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes Details

Review Famous for his society portraits, Sargent is revealed here as a painter of brilliant watercolors depicting Mediterranean landscapes, Venetian palaces, Alpine vistas, Italian gardens, Bedouin encampments . . . luminous reproductions. -- The Wall Street Journal, December 4, 1997 Read more About the Author Warren Adelson (president of Adelson Galleries, New York) is founder and supporter of the ongoing Sargent catalogue raisonne project. Donna Seldin Janis has contributed extensively to the catalogue raisonne. Elaine Kilmurray is research director and coauthor of the catalogue raisonne. Richard Ormond (director, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, and the artist's great nephew) is director and coauthor of the catalogue raisonne. Elizabeth Oustinoff (director, Adelson Galleries) is aresearcher and contributor to the catalogue raisonne. Read more Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Introduction: Sargent's Landscapes, 1900-1914 By Richard Ormond There is a widely held view that the landscapes of John Singer Sargent (1856- 1925) were a sideline--an adjunct to his work as a portrait painter and not a major part of his achievement. None of his chief biographers--Evan Charteris, Charles Merrill Mount, Stanley Olson--devotes more than four pages to the story of his painting expeditions abroad. This study, the first serious examination of the landscapes and figure subjects painted by Sargent between 1900 and 1914, will correct that misconception. The scarce biographical data on this aspect of Sargent's work might suggest that Sargentconsidered landscape painting to be a secondary activity, something to pass the time while relaxing on holiday, but this is contradicted by the evidence of the paintings themselves. The body of landscape work is formidable in its range and quality, showing that Sargent pursued landscape themes with the same intensity and inventivenessevident in his portraits and murals. He did not paint because he went abroad; he went abroad to paint. Sargent had exhibited portraits and figure subjects in equal measure at the Salon during his early career. In England he became almost exclusively an Impressionist for a period of three or four years in the late 1880s. And in the following decade, the portraitist turned muralist, reverting to the older academic tradition in which he had been reared. It should come as no surprise, therefore, to find Sargent reengineering himself in the early 1900s, especially when he had, by then, achieved a measure of financial independence.His vision was not that of a tourist casually recording what happened to catch his eye but of an explorer in search of new prospects and ideas. The essays and plates in this study demonstrate that Sargent was preoccupied by particular themes and motifs throughout the early 1900s. In this way it is possible to evaluate the large body of work previously regarded as simply descriptions of his travels and prove that he was, in fact, much more deliberate, even obsessive, in what he chose to paint than has been previously recognized. Sargent's themes cross over individual expeditions and places to reveal a coherent artistic vision. This has guided ourdecision to analyze Sargent's work thematically rather than chronologically. The broad geographical boundaries of the Alps, the Mediterranean, and Venice provide a framework that is not intended to be exclusive; there are many parallels and similarities to be drawn between his subject types regardless of topography and climate. In the mountains he painted beautiful girls in alpine meadows, bubbling streams, and distant views. In Italy he painted fragments of architecture seen close up, villas and gardens that are dreamlike in their evocation of the past, traditional sailing ships and boats, white Siena oxen and mules, peasants in the fields, fruit, and flowers. Venice is something ofa special case, because the city is unique and because Sargent's infatuation with its canals and palaces and its translucent qualities of light lasted for so many years. This book's five essays identify the main strands in Sargent's landscape work between 1900 and 1914. (Because of the volume of work he produced in those years, we have notattempted to widen the study beyond those dates.) The illustrations demonstrate the persistence of certain motifs in a powerful visual form, forming a vivid record of the obsessional nature of Sargent's landscape work. The first essay provides the background to Sargent's preoccupation with landscape subjects after 1900 and traces the broad development of his style and the major influences on his work. The next three essays break down his landscapes and subject pictures into constituent themes. In this way we build up a composite picture of his output by concentrating on groups of works that show him returning to subjects over the years. The fifth essay addresses the reputationof Sargent's outdoor painting. In addition, there are a supporting chronology and a dramatis personae of the many travel companions-artists, friends, and family-whoaccompanied Sargent on his journeys. These essays and Sargent's remarkable visual accounts will surely inspire further studies in the years ahead. Read more