John Singer Sargent

(C) 2014 Photograph Dale DiMauro

During this holiday period I have been reading a biography of John Singer Sargent by Stanley Olson (John Singer Sargent: His Portrait). I have all too often found big tomes on Sargent with lavish photographs of his work but wanted to read just a basic biography and this covers it.

After a brief trip to Boston earlier this week with relatives, the presence of Sargent seemed to increase in our lives. The August St. Gaudens historical site, dedicated to a Sargent colleague is not far from us here in Vermont. In addition, ancestors of my wife posed for Sargent in Boston and were related to Isabella Stewart Gardner.

The author emphasizes how Sargent escaped the civil war and reconstruction by living overseas with his family. In his life he painted some six hundred portraits while producing another 2,500 pictures in oil and watercolor. He became famous by the time he was twenty-five and went on to paint murals in addition to his portraits. The above charcoal drawing, one of some five hundred he produced in his life, is of Pierre du Pont of Longwood Gardens, one of the most spectacular estates turned into public places in America. I was taken by the charcoal portrait several years ago when we visited the garden while visiting relatives.

I saw his watercolors at the Museum of Fine Arts in a recent exhibition(in collaboration with the Brooklyn Museum) and was struck by his direct use of the medium. He truly recorded what he saw with precision yet didn't go back and fuss with any prior doings.