Existing comment:
Literary Figures
Highly literate, fluent in four languages, and hailing from a cosmopolitan background, Sargent honed his powers of observation through wide-ranging experience of the world. Like his great friend, the novelist Henry James, Sargent may be seen as a transitional figure, bridging the cultural shift from Victorian materialism to twentieth-century modernity. On one hand, he was clearly fascinated by the physical characteristics of fabrics, jewelry, and hairstyles. On the other, he probed his sitters' personalities, mannerisms, and moods in ways that mirrored the more abstract, psychological concerns of modern literature.
A sense of unease stirred by rapid changes in society, technology, and geopolitics also permeates the literature of Sargent's era. The popularity of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908) rested on its nostalgic evocation of a pre-industrial natural world, while Anna Bowman Dodd's dystopian novella The Republic of the Future (1887) gained a wide readership by warning of disasters to come. Burgeoning wealth in the United States brought further change, with prominent cultural figures traversing the Atlantic to create world-class libraries, museums, and private collections. Clients of Sargent, such as William Osler and John Cadwalader, were instrumental in these endeavors. |