John Singer Sargent: 9 works

'The most cosmopolitan of American painters, John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, Italy, to American expatriates who traveled frequently from one European city to another. Sargent sought art instruction in Paris in 1874 under Émile-Auguste Carolus-Duran, and soon began to produce paintings that dazzle the viewer with virtuoso brush handling.'

'The aura of Venice incited the attentions of countless artists and writers in the 19th century, including American expatriate painter John Singer Sargent. When in Venice, Sargent frequented the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal, an opulent palace owned by his distant relation Daniel Curtis and Daniel's wife, Ariana.'

'"Venetian Glass Workers" is one of many genre scenes featuring workers painted by John Singer Sargent at the beginning of the 1880s. In this painting, Sargent focused on the contrast between the dank surroundings and the scintillating products of the workers' labor, subtly noting the separation of native production and tourist consumption of Venetian glassware.'

'"Le verre de porto" represents one of Sargent's most impressionistic works, and the loose, fluid brushwork seen here contrasts stylistically with the academic realism that was taught at the prestigious Paris Salon, where he regularly exhibited. Sargent painted another work, "Madame X", in the same year (1884) he made "Le verre de porto".'

'Their father was the illustrator Frederick Barnard - a friend of Sargent's. Sargent wanted to capture the exact level of light at dusk so he painted the picture out of doors, in the Impressionist manner.'

'Conditioned by contemporary French and 17th-century Spanish painting techniques, Sargent's talented brush impressively evokes a range of lighting effects and textures, including fine satin, polished wood and sheer curtains. Mrs. Cecil Wade was among Sargent's first significant commissions upon relocating to London from Paris in 1886.'

'This portrait depicts John Singer Sargent's lifelong friend Sarah Sears, a photographer and patron of the arts in Boston. Her alert pose, intense gaze, and upper-body posture contrast with the seemingly relaxed position of her lower body, an instance of how Sargent seemed to capture, as one critic wrote, "the nervous tension of the age."'

'"Ask me to paint your gates, your fences, your barns, which I should gladly do, but not the human face," begged John Singer Sargent after completing this picture of Lady Wilma Pleydell-Bouverie Bootle-Wilbraham, Countess of Lathom (1869--1931)--"Queenie" for short. Such privileged clients adored Sargent's vigorous, gestural brushstrokes for the modern but elegant energy they brought to traditional portraiture.'

'Set in a sunlit garden in the central Italian town of Frascati, this charming double portrait depicts Sargent's friends and fellow artists Wilfrid and Jane Emmet de Glehn. The painting is filled with light, displaying Sargent's characteristically dazzling surface articulated with thick impasto and virtuoso brushwork.'