John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925). Self-Portrait, 1886. Oil on canvas. Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Collections, United Kingdom
Welcome to the blog for Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, on view through October 4, 2015. In weekly posts throughout the run of the exhibition, we'll look more closely at the life and work of John Singer Sargent, explore some of the themes of the exhibition in depth, and take a look behind the scenes at how the show came together. You'll hear from me and other colleagues in The American Wing and throughout the Museum. I will be moderating the blog and look forward to your comments.
Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends comes to the Met from the National Portrait Gallery, London, where it was curated by Richard Ormond, an art historian and the former director of the National Maritime Museum. He is co-author of the Sargent catalogue raisonné and the great-nephew of the artist. Here at the Met, the show has been curated by me and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture. We are pleased to present an expanded version of the show, including twenty additional portraits (for a total of ninety-two works of art). We have enlarged the section representing Sargent's efforts in the United States. We also decided to include a selection of twenty-one watercolors and drawings from the Met's vast holdings of works by Sargent in the reading room. The works in this installation complement the themes of the exhibition—particularly Sargent's sensuous rendering of the human form (especially male) and represent the wide range of Sargent's efforts on paper. (More on these topics will follow in future posts.)
The exhibition looks at a particular aspect of the diverse and prolific career of the leading American portraitist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: his many exceptional images of his artistic circle. Among the goals of the exhibition is to demonstrate how Sargent's relationships with these creative types—actors, artists, dancers, musicians, writers, and patrons—shaped his artistic vision. By looking at the subjects and themes that captivated him, we gain insight into him as an artist and a person.
Throughout his career, Sargent was inspired by his artistic friends and associates, especially those with bold personalities, and made them the subjects of his most daring portraits. Since many of the paintings you will see in the exhibition were not commissioned, Sargent was free to take creative risks, pushing the boundaries of conventional portraiture. As a group, these portraits tend to be more highly charged, intimate, and experimental than Sargent's formal portraiture.
Sargent, seated at center, at an artists' party in New York, ca. 1888. © Private collection
Sargent was extremely social and went out nightly; in the photo above, you see him at the center (with a twinkle in his eye) at an artists' party in New York City in the late 1880s—one of the many such events he attended. His social life revolved around art, music, and theater, and he was deeply engaged in the culture of his time, always open to new influences, and able to nurture friendships with those he admired. His diverse friendships link him to the vanguard of contemporary movements in the arts. He befriended many well-known creative types, including writers Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson, artists Claude Monet and Auguste Rodin, and composer Gabriel Fauré, among others.
Interestingly, friends often described Sargent's personality as retiring, shy, nervous, and awkward. Artist-illustrator W. Graham Robertson remarked, "Sargent talked little and with an effort; why he 'went everywhere' night after night often puzzled me." Robertson also wrote, "[Sargent] had not the gift of tongues, but that mattered little; he was so well able to express himself otherwise."[1] This is a particularly revealing comment because Robertson certainly knew that the cosmopolitan Sargent was actually fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Italian, and spoke some German; he makes the important point that Sargent expressed himself through his art.
By shedding light on Sargent's diverse friendships and his active engagement in the cultural scene of the era, Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends allows us to merge these disparate ideas: Sargent's retiring personality and his active social life full of artists and friends. Sargent cultivated and maintained friendships that were essential to his art—they nourished his creativity and provided inspiration, and they were crucial for the development of his career throughout his life. Sargent constantly expanded his circle of associates while remaining devoted to lifelong friends; for instance, it was common for Sargent to maintain social relationships with patrons years after he had completed their portraits. His network of friends made it possible for him to achieve success on both sides of the Atlantic.
Over the next thirteen weeks, my colleagues and I look forward to sharing insights, providing context, and hearing from you.
[1] W. Graham Robertson, Time Was: The Reminiscences of W. Graham Robertson, London, 1933, p. 235.