Читать книгу Sargent - Donald Wigal - Страница 4

In 1854, Americans Dr. Fitz William Sargent and his wife Mary planned a short visit to Europe. He was a surgeon from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was an amateur painter who loved travelling and experiencing different cultures. They had lost a child shortly before arriving in Europe. A vacation abroad would be a way for the couple to cope somewhat with their grief. However, instead of a brief stay, they gradually took up residence in Europe and returned to America only for short visits.

Man Wearing Laurels

1874–1880

Oil on canvas, 44.4 × 33.4 cm

Mary D. Keeler Bequest

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Two years after arriving in Europe, their son John was born on 12 January, 1856, in Florence. The following year John’s sister, Emily, was born. When she was four, an accident damaged her spine. Early in life she came to rely on John, who lovingly cared for her thereafter. Another sister, Violet, was born in 1870, also in Florence. Throughout his life, Sargent would rarely travel without his mother or sisters. He and Emily would never marry.

Portrait of Frances Sherborne Ridley Watts (Portrait of Mile W.)

1877

Oil on canvas, 105.9 × 81.3 cm

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wharton Sinkler

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

He did not have a mistress, although many men of his time with the means did so. Moreover, Sargent apparently never had a serious love affair with a woman, even though he became a cult figure in social circles, and there were many women among his admirers. Those fans, as well as models, would visit him often at his studio. He did, however, have special friends, including Violet Paget, whom he met in Nice. She was a writer who used the pen name Vernon Lee.

Fishing for Oysters at Cancale

1878

Oil on canvas, 41 × 61 cm

Gift of Miss Mary Appleton (1935)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Her letters, which include memories of Sargent, were privately printed in 1937. Sargent would also later become a friend of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, the beautiful model who posed for the famous Madame X portrait.

Sargent showed musical talent early in life and played the piano, but drawing was more obviously his passion. Starting when only nine years old, Sargent continually sketched and used watercolours while the family travelled throughout Europe, visiting the major art centres of London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Nice, as well as holiday locations, including Pau in the French Pyrenees. When his father was in America on business, his mother would take the children to Lake Como, the Tyrol, Switzerland, Salzburg, Milan, Catalonia and Andalusia. It is not surprising that Sargent’s art would reflect his wide experience and exposure to many cultures.

Oyster Gatherers of Cancale

1878

Oil on canvas, 96.8 × 123.2 cm

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.

Head of Ana, Capri Girl

1878

Oil on canvas, 22.9 × 25.4 cm

Private collection

After he settled in Dresden, Sargent continued his formal classical education there and then later in Florence.

In 1870 he began drawing classes at the Academia delle Belle Arti, while working at the studio of the German-American landscape painter, Carol Welsch, who gave Sargent his first formal painting lessons. However, his first portraiture lessons were from the Scottish painter Joseph Farquharson (1846–1935), who was in turn influenced by Peter Graham (1836–1921).

Carmela Bertagna

c. 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

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

These American artists, as well as Charles Sprague Pearce and others, made Europe their home. However, most of the Paris-trained artists returned to America and, as New York City critic James Gardner expressed it: “Modernism began hesitantly to take root on our shores.” He added: “It would be some decades before our art came into its own during the post-war years, but the seeds of that miraculous flowering were planted in Paris more than half a century before.”

Portraits of Edouard and Marie-Louise Pailleron

1881

Oil on canvas, 152.4 × 175.3 cm

Edith M. Usry Bequest Fund, in memory of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Franklin Usry

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines

In 1877, while visiting the Brittany Coast near Saint-Malo, Sargent painted two works with the title Oyster Gatherers of Cancale. One of these was the first of Sargent’s to be accepted by the Paris Salon, while the second was accepted by the Association of American Artists. That same year, Sargent showed a portrait of his friend Frances Watts, titled Portrait de Mile W. It was well received, except for some criticism of how the artist treated the hands of the subject.

Doctor Samuel Jean Pozzi at Home

1881

Oil on canvas, 204.5 × 111.4 cm

Armand Hammer Collection

UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

It is usually noted that Sargent considered that a minor criticism. However, it is interesting to see what meticulous care is given to hands in such subsequent works as Madame Edouard Pailleron (1879) and Doctor Samuel Jean Pozzi at Home (1881). Furthermore, in El Jaleo (1882) at least a dozen hands are shown, each caught during a very expressive gesture. Being a perfectionist, Sargent made several studies of details that were especially challenging, such as hands.

Vernon Lee

1881

Oil on canvas, 53.7 × 43.2 cm

Miss Vernon Lee Bequest through Miss Cooper Willis (1935)

Tate Gallery, London

Back in Paris in 1878, Carolus-Duran saw how accomplished his prize student Sargent had become. The master then asked his student to do a portrait of him. This portrait demonstrated Sargent’s ability to identify the “role-playing side” of the subjects who posed for him, a talent which, opined biographer Swinglehurst, “perhaps arose from his own nature and his way of coping with the world”.

A Street in Venice

c. 1880–1882

Oil on canvas, 75.1 × 52.4 cm

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

Throughout his life the artist displayed his talent for acting as if he actually was whatever was needed at the time. He somehow captured this quality also in his sitters. With the Carolus-Duran portrait, exhibited in the 1879 Salon, the public acknowledged that as a portraitist, Sargent had ironically surpassed the talent of even his famous teacher. It began a new chapter in the artist’s remarkable life of achievement.

Street in Venice

1882

Oil on wood, 45.1 × 53.9 cm

Gift of the Avalon Foundation

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Sargent travelled yet again during 1878 and 1879 to Spain and Morocco. He produced several works reflecting his love of the local colour, including Moorish Buildings in Sunlight and Luxembourg Gardens at Twilight, both in 1879. On his way to Andalusia, he detoured to Madrid to see the works of his hero Velázquez, which were in the Prado. There, Sargent undoubtedly saw the master’s Las Meninas (The Family of Philip IV or The Maids of Honour) (1656).

A Venetian Interior

c. 1882

Oil on canvas, 48.4 × 60.8 cm

Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown

The influence of that work undoubtedly influenced Sargent’s portrait of The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, which was by far the most important work, produced in 1882. In it is seen the influence of Velázquez, specifically his Las Meninas. Both are portraits of a family in its own environment, caught in an unguarded moment. A distinctive feature of the Sargent masterpiece is the contrast between the large size of the room and two large Japanese vases and rug, compared to the small girls, each of whom displays a unique personality.

Sortie de l’église (After Church) Campo San Canciano, Venice

1882

Oil on canvas, 59.9 × 85.1 cm

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

“Relaxed and trustful, the children give Sargent an opportunity to record sensitively a gradation of young innocence – from the naïve, wondering openness of the little girl in the foreground, to the grave artlessness of the ten-year-old, to the slightly self-conscious poise of the adolescents.” A review of the 2006 Metropolitan Museum exhibit “American in Paris”, called that Sargent painting “one of the greatest paintings of children in the history of art”.

El Jaleo

1882

Oil on canvas, 232 × 348 cm

Gift of T. Jefferson Coolidge (1914)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

More obvious, Velázquez’s fascination with servants, entertainers, and dwarfs, as in A Dwarf Sitting on the Floor (Don Sebastián de Morra?) (c.1645), was caught by Sargent in his work A Dwarf at the Spanish Court (After Velázquez) (1879). Major works of this 1879 period include Among the Olive Trees, Capri, Neapolitan Children Bathing, and the portraits Madame Edouard Pailleron, and Carolus-Duran.

The Sulphur Match

1882

Oil on canvas, 58.4 × 40.6 cm

Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr. Collection

In 1880, Sargent began a six-month stay in Venice. In that year he painted at least twenty-one portraits, including Carmela Bertagna and Portrait of Ralph Curtis on the Beach at Scheveingen. One of at least forty-six non-portraits produced that year was Venetian Bead Stringers. There were also Venetian Street, A Venetian Interior and The Sulphur Match. Several of the artist’s works in the 1880s show Venetian scenes: glass workers, women in the Palazzo Rezzonico, and bead stringers.