Existing comment:
Tastemakers
Around 1907, Sargent proclaimed that he "abhorred and abjured" portraits and hoped "never to do another especially of the Upper Classes." Yet he continued to earn his bread and butter through charcoal drawings of affluent subjects. Those who made productive use of their money and social position were most likely to pique his interest and yield compelling portraits.
This gallery features men and women who were the "influencers" of Sargent's day, shaping contemporary taste in art, architecture, gardens, and fashion. Some were in the vanguard of avant-garde style, such as the fashion icon Daisy Fellowes and the art patron Eugenia Huici Errázuriz. Others, such as Sybil and Philip Sassoon, were equally influential in promoting a new appreciation of undervalued art from past eras and in carrying out sensitive restorations of historic properties.
Sargent was a tastemaker himself. In fact, one rival artist, Walter Sickert, coined the term "Sargentolatry" in an article of 1910. Sickert bemoaned the "prostration before [Sargent] and all his works" by critics who considered the artist's paintings "as the standard of art, the ne plus ultra and high-water mark of modernity." |