Sargent. Donald Wigal
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1879
Oil on canvas, 59.7 × 49.5 cm
Bequest of Frederick W. Schumacher
Colombus Museum of Fine Art, Colombus
In 1874, John’s parents sought even more intense training for their talented son. They decided that taking him to Paris would be the next step. The best teaching studio there at the time was that of the master Carolus-Duran. It was there that Sargent learned the portraiture style of the master, as the two men became not only teacher and student, but also colleagues and friends.
Among the Olive Trees, Capri
1879
Oil on canvas, 76.8 × 63.2 cm
Private collection
Sargent met the social circle of Carolus-Duran, which included R. A. M. Stevenson, cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson, of whom John would later paint portraits.
During that time, he also studied with Adolphe Yvon, at the Ecole des beaux-arts. The following year he shared a studio with fellow American student James Carroll Beckwith. The two would be asked by their teacher Carolus-Duran to help him create a commissioned mural-style covering for the Palais du Luxembourg.
Neapolitan Children Bathing
1879
Oil on canvas, 267 × 413 cm
Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown
They used each other as models during the work. One of the Sargent works inspired by this locale is Luxembourg Gardens at Twilight. In 2006, a critic commented that it is “a picture in which elegance has a heightened, almost religious aura.”
When Beckwith returned to the United States, the studio became Sargent’s first independent studio. Only an occasional glimpse of Sargent’s private life is seen in his letters and several memoirs as observed by those who felt they knew him.
Luxembourg Gardens at Twilight
1879
Oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.7 cm
Gift of Mrs. C. C. Bovey and Mrs. C. D. Velie
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
One such source is the autobiography of the artist’s friend W. Graham Robertson. In 1884, Sargent did a portrait of Robertson as a young man. The Sargent biographer Swinglehurst described Robertson as personifying “the eternal undergraduate,” surely an appealing description for Sargent, who enjoyed the company of attractive young men, as well as women.
Madame Edouard Pailleron
1879
Oil on canvas, 208.3 × 99.6 cm
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
Robertson mentioned that Sargent would at times stammer when under stress or when “emotionally confused.” Otherwise the artist appeared to his public as under control, refined and proper, as when working or even playing on the beach, in the woods, or on his floating studio on the River Thames that he built, which was reminiscent of the one Monet had built for himself.
Rehearsal of the Pasdeloup Orchestra at the Cirque d’Hiver
c. 1879–1880
Oil on canvas, 57.1 × 46 cm
The Hayden Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Even when painting outdoors, the Sargents were always appropriately dressed. Learning to be comfortable with a variety of formal styles since childhood had prepared the artist for the many encounters with the elegant costumes and environment of the famous and wealthy people he would meet and capture on canvas over the decades. Unlike many of his colleagues, he never took on the appearance or lifestyle of the bohemian.
Portrait of Carolus-Duran
1879
Oil on canvas, 116.8 × 96 cm
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
In 1876, appropriately the first centenary of America’s Declaration of Independence, Sargent returned to the United States in order to legally confirm his American citizenship before his twenty-first birthday. That same year he returned to Paris and continued his studies. During that year he produced at least six works, including Gitana.
His art would clearly show his appreciation of feminine as well as masculine beauty.
Fumée d’ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris)
1880
Oil on canvas, 139.1 × 90.6 cm
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown
However, even in Sargent’s earliest works, such as the five done in 1875, there are subtle signs that he was developing his famous “swagger” style of portraits, at least with his male sitters, probably reaching their haughty peak with works such as the portrait George Nathaniel, Marquis Curzon of Kedleston (1914). An insolent pose, albeit often softened, was even sometimes captured or given to women, such as in Marchioness Curzon of Cholmondeley (1922).
Venetian Women in the Palazzo Rezzonico
c. 1880
Oil on canvas, 45 × 63.5 cm
Private collection
At the end of the century both the beauty and the decadence of Belle Epoque Paris was spectacular. A critic observed: “In the hands of a John Singer Sargent the elegance of Paris becomes intoxicating. However, Sargent spent most of his life in England, but his gorgeous froth – his brush is as fluent, and sometimes as superficial, as a bon mot – seems more French than English, let alone American. Sargent doesn’t just illustrate the stylish; he is stylishness itself.”
Venetian Bead Stringers
c. 1880–1882
Oil on canvas, 66.9 × 78.1 cm
Friends of the Albright Art Gallery Fund (1916)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
During the same time, in England, brilliant but outrageous public figures, including the flamboyant Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and his young male entourage shocked the Victorian public. Private lives were often made to be public theatre.
While most American artists visiting France, even those who intended to live the expatriate life, could not speak French, Sargent was fluent, as were James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt.
Venetian Glass Workers
c. 1880–1882
Oil on canvas, 56.5 × 84.5 cm
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
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