Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Portrait of a Boy
John Singer Sargent American
Not on view
Sargent met the great American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Paris in the 1870s. In the 1890s, they both accepted commissions to decorate the new Boston Public Library. During Sargent’s visit to the United States in 1890, Sargent and Saint-Gaudens decided to trade artistic tokens of their friendship. The sculptor created a portrait relief of Sargent’s sister Violet playing the guitar, while Sargent painted this image of the sculptor’s young son Homer (1880–1953) and wife Augusta (1848–1926).
The costumes and setting are quasihistorical, but the characterization is edgy and modern. Seated casually on the corner of the chair, the young boy gazes straight ahead with an unflinching stare. He appears more interested in us than in the book being read to him by his mother, who was included as an afterthought.
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