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Artists and Patrons
Sargent developed close friendships within an international network of artists and patrons who frequently socialized and traveled together. The portraits in this gallery map the range of Sargent's art world connections. With remarkable facility, he altered his approach to suit each encounter. Some portraits are infused with intimate affection, while others convey an air of respectful admiration. Humor may underlie his drawing of the convalescing artist William Blake Richmond, who appears buried up to his chin in an enormous expanse of overcoat. By contrast, the smiling face of Sargent's vivacious patron Mary Smyth Hunter emerges from an ethereal cloud of fluttering charcoal strokes.
During Sargent's lifetime, the transatlantic art world experienced cataclysmic changes. Impressionism had been the cutting-edge of modernism when he began training in Paris in the 1870s. By the time of his death in 1925, more radical art movements, such as Fauvism and Cubism, had made Impressionism (and Sargent himself) appear old-fashioned. While his circle of friends responded to these changes in a variety of ways, Sargent remained steadfast in charting his own independent course. His psychological insights and deep grounding in art historical tradition yielded portraits that we recognize today as timeless. |