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Inspiration from Artists Wk 124 : Singer Sargent and Amy Silman
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Posted
Welcome to week 125 of Inspiration From Artists , this weeks featuring artists are Singer Sargent, introduced by Hilary and Amy Silman who will be introduced by Martin.
Hillary will open the week with her introduction to Singer Sargent , Martin will introduce the artwork of Amy Silman on Wednesday lunchtime.
I hope that you have a great week and enjoy the artwork chosen.
Posted
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born in Florence to expat American parents. His mother was an amateur painter and encouraged Sargent with his painting and drawing. His childhood was spent touring Europe, mostly Italy and France. He did not see America till he was twenty. When eighteen he entered the Paris studio of Carolus-Duran, an established portrait painter, where he trained for four years. Carolus-Duran was much influenced by Velasquez's style of painting -'to express the maximum by means of the minimum'.
Sargent lived in Paris till 1884 when he fell out with the Paris Salon who considered some of his portraits to be too risque, particularly his portrait of 'Madame X'. He then moved to London in 1855, and was very much in demand there as a portrait painter for the aristocracy, and the rich and famous.
Sargent also lived for a while in an ex-pat colony of artists and writers in Broadway, Worcestershire. This is where he painted 'Carnation, Lily,Lily Rose' in the summer evenings of 1886, in the gardens of Russell House.
By 1907 Sargent had tired of portrait painting and said that he never wanted to do another one, especially of the 'upper classes'. However portraits were a rich source of income for him so he continued to do some charcoal portraits. These did not take so long and allowed him to devote more time to his love of travel and painting landscapes. He travelled widely in Europe, Venice was a favourite place, and also around the Middle East. He was a compulsive sketcher and watercolours were easily portable and the ideal medium to take on location. He painted with watercolours in a free and expressive style, mainly for his own pleasure. Recognition and appreciation of his watercolours came later, as his loosely handled style of painting was innovative and not so much appreciated at the time.
There was recently an exhibition of 'Sargent and Fashion' on at The Tate, which showed some of his portraits alongside the actual costumes and dresses - (which I would have loved to have seen).
In his career he painted over 900 oil paintings and 2000 watercolours. I have just a few here, I hope that you will find more that you like.
Portrait of Dr.Pozzi, 1882.
Portrait of The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882.
'Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose' 1886
Sargent was also an official war artist and painted 'The Gassed' in 1919.
Posted
My favourite Singer Sargent, 'Lady Agnew of Lochnaw'. Saw it in the National Gallery of Scotland, probably half a century ago. Never forgotten it. Painted in 1892, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1893. Singer Sargent was accepted as an associate of the academy the following year.
Edited
by Tony Auffret
Posted
Good choice, Helen. I was lucky enough to visit the exhibition at Tate Britain. His method of depicting velvet was interesting (and unreproducible for me) Like others, I prefer his watercolours, and the only ones on view were those of ladies. Anyway here's Mrs Hugh Hammersley. Calling her Mrs Hugh is rude....but that's what they did back then.
Posted
My favourite Singer Sargent, 'Lady Agnew of Lochnaw'. Saw it in the National Gallery of Scotland, probably half a century ago. Never forgotten it. Painted in 1892, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1893. Singer Sargent was accepted as an associate of the academy the following year. I go to see this whenever I’m in Edinburgh. Beautiful!