From the Portrait of Madame X to Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, John Singer Sargent's paintings and illustrations show why he's considered a virtuoso artist.
John Singer Sargent’s artworks are full of life. Thick brush strokes swirl around detailed faces and luminous bodies, suggesting movement that sometimes echoes that of his contemporaries, the Impressionists.
But despite his associations with the highest echelons of European and American society, especially during the Gilded Age, Sargent was also clearly fascinated with the common man. This is a subject that shows up often in his artworks, sometimes clothed and sometimes unclothed.
Though Sargent likely had same-sex love affairs, developed friendships with “outsiders” like Oscar Wilde and pioneering feminist Violet Paget, and captured some non-white, non-Christian, and non-monied subjects in his paintings, it’s shocking how few scandals he actually weathered during his long career at the highest rungs of turn-of-the-century society.
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The Early Life And Style Of John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was born to code-switch.
Born to American parents, Dr. Fitzwilliam Sargent and Mary Newbold Singer, in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 12, 1856, John Singer Sargent's early life was both cosmopolitan and nomadic. Flitting from Florence to Nice, the Alps, and Rome, he picked up French, Italian, and German, all while perfecting English.
While his psychology was partly steeped in Old World tradition, Sargent's mentor Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran, infused a touch of more modern, stylish flair in his young pupil.
Wikimedia CommonsA self-portrait painting of John Singer Sargent. He studied art in Florence, Dresden, Berlin, and Paris, learning about both Old World traditions and modern styles.
A friend of Manet and Monet, the senior artist introduced Sargent to the concept of painting au premier coup (meaning "at the first touch"), leaving thick, broad brushstrokes. This urgency and movement in the paint, and the realism of his treatment of subjects, paved the way for a style that touched on Impressionism, but was entirely Sargent's own signature approach.
With wanderlust still in his blood, Sargent traveled throughout Europe and North Africa, from Brittany to Morocco to Capri. He captured some of his most interesting subjects while traveling, like the Italian peasant girl Rosina Ferrara and the French gynecologist Dr. Samuel Jean Pozzi.
Notably, Pozzi is depicted swaddled in a crimson costume and portrayed with a striking beauty. This work is sometimes pointed to as one of the earliest examples of homoeroticism in Sargent's work, not only for its glowing treatment, but also for its intimate portrayal of the man.
John Singer Sargent's Scandalous Portrait Of Madame X Painting
Despite his wanderings, John Singer Sargent eventually made Paris a home base. By the early 1880s, he had become well known for his talents in portraiture, even opening his own studio at 41 boulevard Berthier.
It was here that he'd endure his greatest scandal.
He fatefully decided to paint Madame Pierre Gautreau (born Virginie Amélie Avegno), an American-born socialite who had married a French banker. She was already notorious for her daring style, expatriate background, and rumored love affairs, so it's possible that any portrait of her would have scandalized audiences at the Paris Salon.
But the specific way that Sargent captured her sealed the deal.
Metropolitan Museum of Art/Wikimedia Commons John Singer Sargent's painting Portrait of Madame X was controversial when it was first unveiled.
Equal parts statuesque and alluring, the Portrait of Madame X painting featured the socialite looking off to the distance and standing in what was then considered a sexually suggestive pose.
From the deep V-neck of her dress to her makeup to her flirtatious twist, the portrayal was then considered a controversial way to depict a married, high-society woman. To make matters more scandalous, his original version showed the right strap of her gown slipping from her shoulder.
When Sargent eventually sold the artwork to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he said, "I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done."
La Belle Époque Paris disagreed. The Salon of 1884 decried the work, and one critic even claimed that it looked like Madame X's dress was about to fall off: "One more struggle and the lady will be free." While Sargent later painted the strap back in the proper placement, the damage was done.
With London on his mind, Sargent fled to England to weather the storm.
The Artist's Legendary Work On Both Sides Of The Atlantic
At first, John Singer Sargent struggled to find his place in the London arts scene, despite his friendships with the likes of novelist Henry James. That is, until Sargent revealed Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.
This artwork was quite different from any he would do before or after, a luminous capture of childhood innocence, blossoming with flowers and glowing in lantern-light. His place in the sun in England was secured.
He completed many notable works there, such as Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children, a lush scene capturing the family life of English Jews. While this family was privileged, it was yet another association of Sargent with people who were often considered outsiders during his time.
Eventually, Sargent was sought after by the British aristocracy to capture their likenesses for portraits that would hang in their grand homes.
Wikimedia Commons/HBOJohn Singer Sargent (left) appeared as a minor character in the third season of HBO's The Gilded Age (right).
Meanwhile, he also built a reputation as a portraitist in America in the 1880s and 1890s, traveling across the Atlantic to capture the likeness of many Gilded Age elites, including members of the Vanderbilt family and the famed Boston art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner.
His skills were so renowned that a dramatized version of Sargent even appeared as a minor character in the third season of HBO's The Gilded Age, primarily to capture the image of Gladys Russell, a member of the high-society Russell family. Though the Russell family is fictional, Sargent's talent in capturing portraits of society figures was very real.
But Sargent never wanted to focus on only portraying the one percent.
Later on, he painted murals for Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, including Orestes Pursued by the Furies and Hercules and the Hydra. He also worked on murals for Boston Public Library, including a depiction of Hell.
Years later, another famous artist, Andy Warhol, took one look at Hell's interlocked male bodies and declared, "That's not Hell — that's a gang bang!"
John Singer Sargent's Rumored Homosexuality
John Singer Sargent lived a very private life up until his death by heart disease in London in April 1925 at age 69. However, it's widely believed that he was a gay man, which he would've had to keep secret during his life.
Not only did many of his male portraits have elements of homoeroticism, but a hidden trove of Sargent's male nudes surfaced after his death, including depictions of his valet and close companion Nicola D'Inverno. Meanwhile, some experts believe that another artist, Albert de Belleroche, was the love of Sargent's life, due to Sargent's intimate portrayals of him.
According to Out, Sargent's own grandnephew has remarked of Sargent's portrayal of Belleroche: "Anyone looking for Sargent's sexual orientation will find it in his strong and obsessive studies of this handsome young man."
Wikimedia CommonsThis sketch by Sargent depicts Nicola D'Inverno.
One of Sargent's most fascinating muses, and potential lovers, was Thomas McKeller, a Black elevator operator. Sargent captured the man in a loving and sexually charged portrait, Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller.
In addition, Sargent used McKeller as inspiration when creating some of his murals, incorporating his muscular figure in mythical depictions of gods and heroes (though ultimately painting these characters with white skin).
Though John Singer Sargent is often characterized by his associations with high society, his real passion was probably found in a hidden life that was not accepted during his time. He was likely an artist who learned the rules, in painting and in life, so he could better break them.
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