John singer sargent in the metropolitan museum of art the Met bulletin v 57 #4_Spring 2000

The Metropolitan Museum, of Art Bulletin Spring

2000

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JOHN in

The

SINGER

SARGENT

Metropolitan Museum

of

Art

andStephanieL. Herdrich H. BarbaraWeinberg

THE

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

OF ART

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 速 www.jstor.org

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

John Singer Sargent (I856--925),

A cordialrelationshipwith Sargentduring his lifetime, astutepurchases,and generous gifts from his heirs and other donors have createda collection of his works at the Metropolitanthatis unparalleledfor its size and variety.Sargent'sfriendshipwith the Museum's thirddirector,EdwardRobinson,and his sister'sassociationwith its fifthdirector,Francis Henry Taylor,were especiallyfruitful.

In recognitionof the seventy-fifthanniversaryof Sargent'sdeathand the fiftieth anniversaryof an immensegift of his works by his sister,Mrs.FrancisOrmond,H. Barbara Weinberg,Alice PrattBrown Curatorof AmericanPaintingsand Sculpture,and StephanieL. Herdrich,ResearchAssociate, AmericanPaintingsand Sculpture,have organizedan exhibition,"JohnSingerSargent Beyondthe PortraitStudio:Paintings,Drawings, and Watercolorsfrom the Collection";

a prolific

and versatileAmericanexpatriatepainter based in England,enjoyedgreatinternational acclaim and patronage. By

Thispublication is madepossible by the Marguerite and Frank A. CosgroveJr. Fund.

1900,

when his

reputationas a portraitistreachedits apogee, he had been elected a memberof London's Royal Academyof Arts and New York's NationalAcademyof Design andwas an Officierof the FrenchOrderof the Legion of Honor. By about 1915 he had also achieved

distinctionas a painterof outdoor scenes, especiallyof dazzlingwatercolorsmade duringhis travels.

Sargent'sdeathwas followed by more than a half century of neglect. As an artist, he was too conservativeto please partisansof modernism;too cosmopolitanto gratify culturalnationalistswho were seeking American traitsin Americanart;and too facile to satisfythose who preferredprobingportraits.

The

I980s

published AmericanDrawings and Watercolors in The MetropolitanMuseum of Art:John

witnessed a revival of interest in

Sargentthatis now at a peak. His virtuoso portraitsof gentlemenandelegantladies attiredin sumptuoussilksandglitteringjewels are as popular now as they were about

SingerSargent,with an essay by Marjorie Shelley,ShermanFairchildConservatorin Charge;andpreparedthispublication.These threecomponentsof our commemorationand celebrationof Sargentare all madepossible by the Margueriteand FrankA. Cosgrove Jr. Fund, to which we are most grateful.

I900.

His brilliantlandscapesandgenrepaintings have madehim one of the most cherished Americanpractitionersof Impressionism.

Sargentstudieshaveproliferatedand major retrospectivesandthematicexhibitionsof Sargent'sworksin Englandandthe United Stateshave enjoyedrecordattendance.

The MetropolitanMuseum of Art Bulletin Spring 2000 Volume LVII, Number 4 (ISSN

0026-1521)

Copyright ? 2000 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Published quarterly. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and Additional Mailing Offices. The MetropolitanMuseum of Art Bulletin is provided as a benefit to Museum members and is available by subscription. Subscriptions $25.00 a year. Single copies $8.95. Four weeks' notice required for change of address. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Membership Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, iooo Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028-0198.

Back issues available on microfilm from University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Road,

Philippede Montebello Director

Ann Arbor, Mich. 481o6. V'olumes I-XXXVII available as cloothbound reprint set or (1905-1942) as individual yearly v(olumees from Ayer Company Publishers Inc., 50 Northwestern Drive #lo, Salem, N. H. 03079, or from the Museum, Box 700, Middle Village, N.Y. 11379

Photography by Susanne Cardone, Anna-Marie Kellen, Juan Trujillo, and Bruce Schwarz of The Photograph Studio of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the cover: Detail of Madame X (fig. i6) ications General Managerof Publi.

John P. O'Neill

Editorin Chiefof theBULLLETIN Joan Holt Editor Jennifer Bernstein Production Peter Antony Design Emsworth Design

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Inside front cover: Detail of Bringing down Marblefrom the Quarriesto Carrara(fig. 40)

~Title page: Detail of Lily (fig. 21) Inside back cover: Detail of Padre Sebastiano (fig. 38) Back cover: Detail of Man and Pool, Florida (fig. 53) Opposite: Detail of Mrs. Hugh Hammersley(fig. 23)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 速 www.jstor.org

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SARGENT'S CAREER AS SEEN THROUGH THE METROPOLITAN'S COLLECTION

Sargentwas born of Americanparentsin Italy,learnedto paintlike a Spaniardin France,and lived in Englandfor most of his life (see fig. i). While he was thus the quin-

tessentialcosmopolite,he was also very much an American.He paintedmanyportraitsof Americansittersin Paris,London, and the United States;sold numerousworks to Americancollectors;exhibitedin American cities and in the Americansectionsof internationalexpositions;encouragedAmerican museumsto acquirehis works;devoted decadesto creatingmuralsfor installationin Boston and nearbyCambridge;and declined knighthoodratherthanrenouncehis citizenship. His internationalsuccessgratifiedhis Americanfriends,patrons,and critics.

Sargent'sworks areprizedpossessionsof the Metropolitan'sAmericanWing, valued for their richvisualpleasures,theirrevelation of the artist'sskillsas a draftsmanand as a painterof virtuoso oils andwatercolors, and their reflections of life about

i. John Singer Sargent (856in his Paris I925) studio ca. I885,

with MadameX on an easel.

Photographsof Artists Collection i, Archives of

AmericanArt, Smithsonian Institution,

Washington,D.C.

I900.

This

essay,which is in two parts,firstsummarizes Sargent'scareer,concentratingon his accomplishmentsthatarebest representedin the Museum'sholdings. It then tracesthe growth of the collection from I897, when the trusteesreceivedfrom Sargenta portrait they had commissionedof theirpresident, to the present.

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTHFUL WORKS,

1856-1874

Sargent'sroots were deep New England.

His grandfather,WinthropSargentIV, descendedfrom one of the oldest colonial families,had failed in the merchant-shipping

businessin Gloucester,Massachusetts,and had moved his family to Philadelphia.There his son, FitzwilliamSargent,becamea physician and in i850 marriedMaryNewbold Singer,daughterof a successfullocal merchant.Accompaniedby MarySargent's mother,the couple left Philadelphiafor Europein late summer1854,seekinga healthfulclimateand a distractionafterthe deatha year earlierof theirfirstbornchild, a two-year-olddaughter.The Sargents'stay in Europewas meantto be temporary,but they becameexpatriates,passingwintersin Florence,Rome, or Nice and summersin the Alps or other cooler regions. By 1870Mary Sargenthad given birthto five more children, of whom three survived:John,born in Florence on January 12, I856; Emily, born in Rome in I857; and Violet, born in Florence in 1870. An incurable romantic with a strong

desireto remainin Europe,MarySargent resistedher husband'sinclinationto return to his responsibilitiesin Philadelphia.Able to supporttheirperipateticexistencein rentedquarterswith her smallannuity,she persuadedhim to give up his profession in exchangefor what he describedas a "nomadicsort of life." Their residences would changeto accommodatethe health needs of the family and, increasingly,the educationof theirtalentedson.

JohnSargentwas given little regular schooling. As a resultof his "Baedekereducation,"he learnedItalian,French,and German.He studiedgeography,arithmetic, reading,and other disciplinesunderhis father'stutelage.He also becamean accomplishedpianist.His mother,an amateurartist, encouragedhim to draw,andher wanderlust 5

2. BOTZEN (from SwitFerlandz869

Zd

Sketchbook) May 29, i869;

Graphiteon off-white wove paper 73/4 X 113/4 in. (I9.7 X 29.8 cm)Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 5o.130o.47h

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9

3. LION MONUMENT, LUCERNE

(from SwitFerlandiSo Sketchbook) After Bertel Thorwaldsen, Danish, I768 or 1770-1844 June 6, I870

Graphiteon off-white wove paper 8 x II/8

in.

(20.3

X 28.3

cm)

Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.130.1480

K~~~~~~st~~: lil

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opposite 4. SCHRECKHORN, EISMEER

(from SplendidMountainWatercolours Sketchbook) 1870

Watercolorand graphiteon off-white wove paper Io7/8 X 6 in. (27.6 x 40.6 cm) Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 5o.I3o.I46f recto

6

furnishedhim with subjects:ancientmonuments,Renaissanceand Baroquepaintings and sculptures,and dramaticscenery.If, as has been recorded,Sargent'sfatherenvisioned a naval careerfor him, his parents could not ignore his artisticbent. During the winterof 1868-69, they apparentlyallowed him to takelessons from a German-American landscapepainterin Rome.

Among the earliestworksby Sargentin the Metropolitanis a remarkablesketchbook that recordsthe family'stravelsin summer 1869,when they touredsouthernItaly and then went northto the Alps. Sargent'sdelicate landscapestudiesare typifiedby Botqen (fig. 2), a view nearthe town now known as Bolzano,or Bozen, along the BrennerPass

between Verona,Italy,and Innsbruck, Austria.Suchdrawings,often inscribedwith locationand date, reflectthe seriousness with which the talentedthirteen-year-old chronicledthe journey.

The Metropolitan'sother two early sketchbooks, from summer i870, reveal

greaterartisticconfidence.In LionMonument, Lucerne(fig. 3), for example,Sargentencoded the power of the Danish sculptorBertel Thorwaldsen's huge creation of I821 with

assertivecontoursand carefuldetail. Schreckhorn,Eismeer(fig.4), one of more thanforty views of the Bernese Oberlandand the Swiss Alps containedin a large-formatsketchbook, SplendidMountain Watercolours,typifies

Sargent'sskillfulhandlingof the medium.

7

These prodigiousrecordsof travelhelped convincehis parentsto endorsehis choice of career.In October 1870 FitzwilliamSargent wrote to his mother:"Myboy Johnseems to have a strong desireto be an Artistby profession, a painter,he shows so much evidence of talentin thatdirection,and takesso much pleasurein cultivatingit, thatwe have concludedto gratifyhim and to keep thatplan in view in his studies."

For the next threeyears Sargent'sgeneral educationcontinued,especiallyin Florence and Dresden, until he enrolledfor his firstdocumentedformalarttrainingduringthe

professionalismof that school, he met several young painterswho describedto him and his parentsthe advantagesof study in London or Paris.In spring 1874 FitzwilliamSargent resolvedto nourishhis son's talentin the Frenchcapital,which had become the world's mostpowerfulmagnetfor artstudents.

STUDENT YEARS IN PARIS AND EARLY

CAREER,

1874-1889

winter of 1873-74 at the Accademia delle

In May 1874 Sargent entered the teaching atelier of a youthful, stylish painter, CharlesEmile-Auguste Durand (I838-I917), who

Belle Arti in Florence.As Sargentworked with increasingdisdainfor the limited

calledhimself Carolus-Duran(see fig. 5).

Carolus-Duranhadbeen sympatheticto 5. CAROLUS-DURAN

(Charles-Emile-AugusteDurand) I879

Oil on canvas 46 x 373/4 in. (iI6.8 x 95.9 cm)

Sterling and FrancineClarkArt Institute,Williamstown,Mass.

8

6. GITANA I876?

Oil on canvas 29 x 23% in. (73.7 x 60 cm) Gift of George A. Hearn, I9Io 10.64.10

Realism during the i86os, painting disquieting contemporary events and seedy types.

About 1870 he rejected radical artistic tendencies in order to attract the patrons who would make him a leading portraitist in Third Republic France. His teaching methods, however, remained radical. While the professors of painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (the French government school) insisted on a long preliminary practice in drawing, Carolus-Duran encouraged his students to paint at once, to exploit broad planes of viscous pigment, and to preserve the freshness of the sketch in completed works. He also exhorted them to study artists who demonstrated painterly freedom: Frans Hals and Rembrandt; Sir Anthony Van Dyck and Sir Joshua Reynolds; and, above all others, the Spanish master Diego Velazquez.

The young American moved close to his teacher stylistically and became his protege.

Without ample financial resources to look forward to, he may have grasped the wisdom of painting on commission and may have realized

thatportraituresuitedhis temperament.

Sargent'sinterestin physiognomyandgesture, apparentin his juvenilia,informsworks from his studentyears such as Gitana(fig. 6), a candidoil studyof an exoticwoman. The 1877 ParisSalonjury acceptedSargent'sportrait of his friendFannyWatts(1877; Philadelphia Museumof Art), his firstsubmission.His portraitof Carolus-Duran(see fig. 5), an homage and challengeto his teacher,was a criticalandpopularsuccess at the 1879Salon.

In additionto studying with CarolusDuran for almost five years, Sargent matriculatedfor three semestersof drawing instructionat the Ecole des Beaux-Arts -fall

1874, spring I875, and spring I877-

and appearsto have workedbrieflyin evening classes conductedby portraitistLeon Bonnat. He also maintainedlong-standing habitsof regulartravel and creativeeclecticism. He copiedEgyptianreliefs;Greekvases; paintingsby Tintoretto and Nicolas Poussin and sculpturesby Michelangelo;as well as paintingsand printsby Jean-Fran9oisMillet 9

7. SIESTA ON A BOAT I876

8. MEN HAULING LIFEBOAT ONTO BEACH

Graphiteon off-white wove paper

I876

4 x 63/4 in. (10.2 X 17 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950

Graphiteon off-white wove paper

5o. 30.I4Im

6% x 93/4 in. (I6.8 X 24.8 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50.I30I1540

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and other recentmasters.He may have joined a group of classmateson an excursion to Barbizonin early summerI875 and spent time with his family at Saint-Enogatand Saint-Maloon the Brittanycoast during I875-76.

In May 1876, accompanied by his

motherand his sisterEmily,he began his first trip to the United States,which would includevisits to the CentennialExhibitionin Philadelphiaand NiagaraFalls. Sargent's Atlanticcrossings,in May and October,and his stay at Newport, Rhode Island,inspired him to fill sketchbookswith nauticalsubjects (see fig. 7) of the sort that he had recorded along the Frenchcoast (see fig. 8).

Picturesquelocales promptedSargentto paintgenre scenes,which he showed alongside his portraitsas he built his reputation.

His Oyster Gatherersof Cancale (fig. 9), which

he exhibitedin the 1878Salon, reflectsthe fascinationwith peasantlife in remote,preindustriallocales thatattractedmany late10

nineteenth-centurypaintersand their patrons.The sun-drenchedimage may also bespeakthe influenceof ClaudeMonet, whom Sargentseems to have met in Parisas early as 1876at the second Impressionist exhibition.For such canvasesSargentoften madequickoil sketchesenpleinair, which he combinedwith more deliberatestudiesin graphite(see fig. io) and oil for the final compositionscompletedin the studio.

By autumnI879, no longer attending classesregularlyandconcentratingon building his career,Sargentbegan a periodof extensivetravelto view worksby the old masters andto gatherideasfor pictures.His first destinationwas Madrid,wherehe reinforced his interestin Velazquezby copying his paintings in the Prado.Sargentthen went to southern Spainandon to Morocco,wherehe spent JanuaryandFebruaryi880 in Tangier.He recordedarchitecturalvignettes such as MoorishBuildingson a CloudyDay (fig. I i)

-

9. OYSTER CANCALE

GATHERERS

OF

I878

Oil on canvas

io. CHILD (study for Oyster Gatherers of Cancale) I877-78

Graphite on off-white wove paper in. (21 X 12.7 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950

31 x 48/2 in. (78.7 x I23.2 cm)

8/4 X 5

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

5o.130.114

ii. MOORISH ON A CLOUDY

BUILDINGS DAY

I879-80

Oil on wood 01/4 X 133/4 in. (26 X 34.9 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950

50o.30.7

11

12.

EL JALEO

1882

Oil on canvas 94/2 x i37 in. (240 x 348 cm) ...

IsabellaStewartGardnerMuseum, Boston, Mass.

13. AFTER I882

"EL JALEO"

Graphiteand watercoloron prepared clay-coated paper

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o108 x 51/2 in. (25.7 x 14 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, I950

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14. YOUNG WOMAN IN BLACK SKIRT Ca. 1880-82

Watercolorand graphiteon white wove paper 14 X 9136 in. (35-5 X 25 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond,

I950

50.130.33

duringthisperiod.The greatestproductof the journeywould be ElJaleo (see figs. 12, I3), a dramaticportrayalof a gypsy dancerand her accompanists,which Sargentcompleted two yearsafterhis returnto Paris.

Sargentwent to Hollandin August i880 to studyworksby Hals and other northernmasters,whose techniqueswould nourishhis developingpainterlystyle. During a long visit to Venicein the fall andwinterof 1880-81 and a shorterone in August I882,

he produceda memorablegroup of oils and watercolorsthatcapturedthe characteristic mutedharmoniesof the city. Ignoring the canals,he concentratedon the peculiarperspectivesofferedby the narrowstreetsand mysteriouscourtyards,the murkyinteriors, and the costumesof the people, as depicted in Young Womanin Black Skirt (fig. I4).

Sargent's travels during the early i88os also included other cities in Italy, the south of France, and England.

13

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15. LADY

WITH THE ROSE

(CHARLOTTE LOUISE BURCKHARDT) 1882

Oil on canvas 84 x 443/4 in.

(213.4

x II3.7 cm)

Bequest of Valerie B. Hadden, 1932 32.154

Although Sargentpainted,showed, and won praisefor both portraitsand subjectpicturesat the Salonsbetween 1877 and 1882, commissions from French sitters and members of the international community in Paris increasingly demanded his attention and defined his reputation. He also continued to

demonstratehis skillsin portraitsof friends and acquaintances,which allowedhim greater artistic freedom than did commissioned works. One of his most widely exhibited and acclaimed such portraits was the lifesize Lady with the Rose (CharlotteLouise Burckhardt)(fig. 15), which he showed in the I882 Salon along with ElJaleo. Charlotte Burckhardt, who was twenty years old when

Sargentpaintedher,wasthedaughterof a Swiss merchantandhis Americanwife, membersof the Sargentfamily'scosmopolitancircle. In this engagingpictureshe offersthe viewer a white rose, suggestinginnocence,anda seductivelook, while the artistoffersa tribute to Velazquezin his choice of monochromatic paletteand shallowspace,his emphasison the igure's silhouette,andhis quotation from the Spanishpainter'sportraitCalaba~as (ca. 1628-29; ClevelandMuseumof Art) for the pose. Traitsderivedfrom the worksof Velazquezwould become hallmarksof many of Sargent's portraits. Of Lady with the Rose Henry James wrote in 1887: "It offers the slightly 'uncanny' spectacle of a talent which on the very threshold of its career has nothing more to learn.... It is not simply precocity in the guise of maturity... it is the freshness of youth combined with the artistic experience, really felt and assimilated, of generations."

Sargent's best-known portrait, Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) (fig. I6), also

conjoined"thefreshnessof youth... with the artisticexperience... of generations."

In autumn 1882, when he was twenty-six, Sargent apparently met Virginie Avegno Gautreau, the twenty-three-year-old Louisiana-born wife of a prominent Paris banker, and was attracted by her eccentric beauty. He wrote to his childhood friend Ben

del Castillo,"I have a greatdesireto painther portraitandhave reasonto think she would allow it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty."Sittings began in winter 1882-83 and continued through summer 1883 at the Gautreau vacation home at Parame in Brittany. Sargent struggled to find the best pose for his sitter, making more studies than he usually did for a portrait (see figs. 17, 62, 63).

In the canvas Sargent added to traits derived from Velazquez a profile view that recalls Titian's iconic image of Francis I (I539; Musee du Louvre, Paris) and an unmodulated treatment of the face and figure inspired by the style of Edouard Manet and Japanese prints. The picture's novelty and quality notwithstanding, it was a succes de scandale in the 1884 Salon, where, in the standard form of the period, it appeared as Portraitde Mme *** to protect the sitter's

identity.(Of course, no one seeing the portraitfailedto recognizeher!) Madame Gautreau'shaughtydemeanor,her pale skin accentuatedby her favoritelavenderpowder, andthe fact that Sargenthad shown the jeweled strapof her daringgown falling off her right shoulder (fig. i8) exceeded the bounds

of decorum.Although she had compliedwith the artist'schoices at the time of the sittings, she was embarrassedby the public'sreaction.

15

91

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3

opposite I6. MADAME X (MADAME

PIERRE GAUTREAU)

1883-84

Oil on canvas 821/

X 43 /4 in. (208.6 X I09.9

cm)

ArthurHoppock Hearn Fund, 1916 16.53

above 17. MADAME X (MADAME PIERRE GAUTREAU) I883-84

Graphiteon off-white wove paper 93/4 x I3/16

in. (24.6 x 33.5 cm)

Purchase,Charlesand Anita Blatt Gift, John WilmerdingGift, and Rogers Fund, 1970 I970.47

right i8. Photograph of MADAME X

before repaintingof shoulderstrap.

Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, I950

17

While Sargentwould not yield to demands from her andher family thathe withdrawthe paintingfrom the Salon,he repaintedthe shoulderstrapafterthe exhibitionand kept the canvas(see fig. i).

MadameX was disastrousfor Sargent, who anticipatedneitherthe public'sdisdain for VirginieGautreau'sbizarreglamournor many critics'complaintsabouthis indifference to conventionsof pose, modeling, and treatmentof space,even twenty years after Manet'spioneeringefforts.A writerfor Art Amateurcapturedthe common reactionin a particularlybrutalreview: Thisportraitis simplyoffensivein itsinsolent uglinessanddefianceof everyruleof art....The drawingis bad,thecoloratrocious,theartistic ideallow,thewholepurposeof thepicturebeing, notanartisticandsensational"tourde force" stillwithinthelimitsof trueart,as Sargent's Salonpictureshavehithertobeen,buta wilful of everyoneof hisviciouseccenexaggeration tricities,simplyforthepurposeof beingtalked aboutandprovokingargument.

Having gainednotorietyratherthanfame, SargentdecidedthatLondon, where he had thoughtof settling as early as 1882,would be

more hospitable than Paris. In spring i886 he moved to England for the rest of his life.

Fearful that Sargent might sacrifice characterization to a show of "French style," which they associated with Madame X and, perforce, disliked, English patrons at first withheld commissions. With time and creative energy to spare, Sargent spent several summers engaged in Impressionist projects. These were nourished by his contact with Monet, whom he visited several times at Giverny, beginning in early summer I885, and by the chance to work outdoors during the summers of I885 and 1886 in the Cotswolds village of Broadway, Worcestershire. There, in an informal colony that included American painters Francis Davis Millet and Edwin Austin Abbey, Sargent painted scenes such as ReapersResting in a Wheat Field (fig. 19), which captures with animated brushwork the rural activities and golden sunlight that attracted urbanites to the Cotswolds.

Sargent's most ambitious Broadway canvas was the ravishing Carnation,Lily, Lily, Rose (fig.

20),

a lifesize depiction of illustra-

tor Frederick Barnard's daughters lighting Japanese paper lanterns in Millet's garden.

19. REAPERS WHEAT

Oil on canvas 28 x 36 in. (71.i I -jl H

18

RESTING

IN A

FIELD

X 91.4

cm)

Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 ?o.50-I30.14

20. CARNATION, LILY, LILY, ROSE I885-86

Oil on canvas 68 /2x 6o0/2in. (174 x 153.7 cm) Tate Gallery, London

19

21.

LILY (study for Carnation,Lily, Lily, Rose)

I885-86

(r

Graphiteandpenandinkon off-whitewovepaper 13/2 x 9%

in. (34.5 x 24.5 cm)

Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 50. I30.25

The girls posed every afternoonjust after sunsetso that Sargentcould recordthe contrastbetween fading daylightand glowing candlelight.Although he createdthe effectof an impression,he plannedthe picturecarefully by addingartificialflowersto the actual shrubbery,for example-and mademany

commitmentto Impressionism.He experimentedwith the Frenchpainter'schromatic paletteand high key; adopteda distinctive spiky stroke;andbalancedhis portraitist's interestin specificitywith Monet'scorrosive light. The resultsincluded TwoGirlswith

precise drawings such as Lily (fig. 21). The

Sargentportrayedhis sisterViolet, at left, and a friend,using a few brushstrokesto suggest hands,reducingfaces to masks,and saturating the garmentswith dazzlingsunlight.

Although Englishpatronshesitatedto sit for Sargentduringthe late i88os, Americans were eagerto do so. In September1887he traveledto Newport to fulfillhis firstcommissionin the United States:a portrait of ElizabethAllen Marquand(1887;Art Museum,PrincetonUniversity), wife of the futurepresidentof the Metropolitan Museum.Sargentspent six monthsin the United States,dividing his time between

painting'sdisplayatthe RoyalAcademyin 1887 assuagedEnglishpatrons'andcritics'doubts aboutSargent;its acquisitionfor the British nationauguredwell for his careerin London.

Sargentspentportionsof the summersof 1887, I888, and 1889 in, respectively, Henley,

CalcotMill, and Fladbury,England.Perhaps becausehe was not workingon a major exhibitionpiece, he paintedmore canvases thanhe had at Broadwayand madethem more candidand informalin compositionand painthandling.Additionalvisits to Monet between 1887 and I89I strengthened Sargent's 20

Parasols at Fladbury (fig. 22), in which

22. TWO GIRLS WITH

PARASOLS

AT

FLADBURY 1889

Oil on canvas 29?1 x 25 in. (74-9 x 63.5 cm)

Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50.I30.13

21

22

23. MRS. HUGH

HAMMERSLEY

I892

Oil on canvas 8I x 45/2 in. (205.7

x II5.6 cm)

Gift of Mr.and Mrs.Douglass Campbell,in memory of Mrs.RichardE. Danielson, 1998 I)98.365

Boston and New York,paintingmore than twenty portraits,and having his firstsolo exhibitionat Boston's St. BotolphClub in Januaryi888. His thirdvisit to the United States,which began in December 1889, lasted eleven monthsand includedstays in New York,Boston, and Worcester,Massachusetts.

By the time he returnedto London,he had paintednearlyforty portraitsandhad receiveda prestigiousmuralcommissionfor McKim,MeadandWhite's Boston Public Library,constructedbetween 1887and 1894 in Copley Square.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY, 1890-1925

During the I89os Sargent's accomplishments

as a portraitistconfirmedhis seeminglypredestinedrole as the "VanDyke de l'epoque!" as AugusteRodincharacterizedhim in 1902. The manifestationof his diverse approachesto portraiturein two London exhibitionsin 1893particularlycapturedthe attentionof criticsand the confidenceof potentialsitters.To the progressiveNew Galleryhe sent portraitsof Mrs.George Lewis (1892; privatecollection) and Mrs. Hugh Hammersley (see fig. 23), a British

banker'swife, shown wearinga brilliant magentadressand seatedin a vivacious pose thatsuggeststhe influenceof Impressionism.

To the venerableRoyalAcademyhe sent Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), a depiction

of a languorousaristocrat,a harmonyin mauve. Criticsdescribedthe pictureof Mrs.Hammersleyas chic, clever,unconventional, realistic,daring,bizarre,andbold,

qualitiesthatwere admirableor lamentable, dependingon the writer.By contrast,they characterizedthatof LadyAgnew as solid, convincing,and enduring,traitsthatwere rewardedby Sargent'selection as an associate of the RoyalAcademyin January1894.

Reassuredby thathonor,positive reviews, and the conspicuousqualityof Sargent'sportraitsthemselves,Britishpatronsresponded with numerouscommissions.While his subjects includedbusinessmenandtheirfamilies, artists,andperformers,Sargentflourished particularlyas a purveyorof likenessesto the Englisharistocracy.He maintaineda dialogue with tradition,creatinggrand-manner pendantsto family heirloomsby VanDyck, Reynolds,and others.A fine exampleis The WyndhamSisters:LadyElcho,Mrs.Adeane, andMrs. Tennant(fig. 24), which presentsthe threebeautifuldaughtersof the Honorable PercyWyndhamarrangedlike huge white flowerson a sumptuoussofa. Ratherthan conductingsittingsin his Tite Streetstudio as usual, Sargentstudiedthe sistersin the drawing room of theirfamily'sresidenceon Belgrave Square,London. Fromthe darkwall above them, George FrederickWatts'sportraitof theirmother(1866-77; privatecollection) emergeslike a shadeto establishtheir genealogy as well as Sargent's,by reminding the viewer of his ties to paintersof the past.

Americanpatronscontinuedto call upon Sargent'sskills.For example,in February 1896the Metropolitan'strusteesresolvedto recognizethe contributionsof Henry G. Marquandto the Museumby commissioning his portrait.Marquandhad madehis fortune in realestate,banking,and railroads.After 1880he devoted himself to collecting artand 23

.2-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ?~~~~~~~~~~~?

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to effortson behalf of the Metropolitan,to which he gave a notablecollectionof oldmasterpaintingsandwhich he servedas its second presidentbetween 1889 and his death in 1902. Although the trustees were responsi-

ble for selectingan artist,Marquandprobably favoredSargent,who had paintedhis wife in 1887andhis daughter,Mrs.Henry Galbraith Ward (see fig. 64). In the canvas (fig. 25),

which Sargentexecutedin his London studio during the summer of 1897, the probing gaze

of the frailseventy-eight-year-oldMarquand belies his ill health.

OtherAmericansittersincludedAda Rehan (see fig. 26), the Irish-bornShakespearean actresswhom Sargentpaintedin London for

24. THE WYNDHAM

an Americanadmirerof Rehan's,and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes,the scion of a wealthy New Yorkfamily and an architecturestudent in Paris,with his wife, the formerEdith Minturn.The Stokeseshad been marriedin August

I895

and the picture (fig. 27) was a

wedding gift from a friend.Sargenthad been askedto paintMrs.Stokesalone;he selected a blue satinevening gown for her to wear and beganthe sittings.He soon decidedinsteadto portrayher in the starchedwhite pique skirt, light shirtwaist,and serge jacketin which she walkedto his studio one day. She was to be shown accompaniedby a GreatDane, borrowed from the kennelof one of Sargent's friends.When the couple abandonedtheir

SISTERS:

LADY ELCHO, MRS. ADEANE, AND MRS. TENNANT I899

Oil on canvas II5 x 84/8 in. (292.1 X 213.7 cm) Wolfe Fund, CatharineLorillard Wolfe Collection, 1927 27.67

25. HENRY

G. MARQUAND

1897

Oil on canvas 52 X 41/4

in. (132.1 X 106 cm)

Gift of the Trustees, 1897 97.43

25

9Z

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26. ADA REHAN I894-95 Oil on canvas 93 X 50l/8 in. (236.2 X 127.3 cm)

Bequest of Catharine Lasell Whitin, in memory of Ada Rehan, 1940 40.I46

27.

MR. AND MRS. I. N. PHELPS

STOKES I897

Oil on canvas 84'/4 x 393/4 in. (214 x ioi cm) Bequest of Edith Minturn Phelps Stokes (Mrs. I.N.), 1938 38.104

27

planto have JamesAbbott McNeill Whistler paintMr.Stokes'sportrait-and the dog was unavailable-Stokes had "a suddeninspiration," he recalled,and "offeredto assumethe role of the GreatDane in the picture.Sargent was delighted,and acceptedthe proposalat once.... He paintedme in threestandingspurelyas an accessory."While the portrait invokesthe usualstylistictraitsfromVelazquez and recallsVanDyck in its attenuatedforms, it also encodes the couple's modernspirit:an

emblematic"newwoman,"encouragedbut not dominatedby her husband,seems to have stoppedby the studio and caughther breath only an instantbefore Sargentsnappedher image onto the canvas.

Sargent'sportraitsof notedAmerican painterWilliamMerrittChase(fig.28) and museumdirectorEdwardRobinson(fig.29) revealhis gift for characterization, despite the limitationsof sombermaleattireandthe waningof his enthusiasmfor accepting 28. WILLIAM M. CHASE, N.A. 1902

Oil on canvas 62/2 x 41%3/in. (I58.8 x io5.I cm)

Gift of the Pupilsof Mr. Chase, I905 05-.33

28

29. EDWARD

ROBINSON

I903

Oil on canvas 561/ x 36/4 in. (143.5

X 92.1 cm)

Gift of Mrs. Edward Robinson, i931 31.60

the muralprojectand was on the committee thatorganizedan exhibitionof his works at Copley Hall, Boston, in I899. Robinsonwas appointeddirectorof the Boston museumin 1902,

the year before Sargent painted him; he

would come to the Metropolitanas assistant director in 1905 and serve as director from 19 0 until 193I. As in his portrait of Chase,

Sargentilluminatedonly the subject'sface andhands.The libraryinteriorand the Etruscan relief on the tablereferto Robinson's scholarlyinterests.

After the turn of the centurySargentgrew tiredof the demandsof portraitpainting.He railedagainsttakingon commissions:"No more paughtraits... I abhorand abjurethem and hope never to do anotherespeciallyof the Upper Classes,"he wrote to fellow artist RalphW. Curtis."Askme to paintyour gates, your fences, your barns,which I should gladly do, but not the humanface," he told his

commissions after I900. A group of Chase's

studentsorderedthe portraitof theirteacher, planningto pay for the canvasby exhibitingit andintendingto give it to the Metropolitan.

When he arrivedfor his sittingsin Londonin

friendLady Radnor.Insteadof portraitsin oil, Sargentofferedpatronsbust-lengthimages in charcoalthathe could drawin one sitting lastingtwo or threehours, ratherthanthe eight or ten sittingsthatan oil might require.

The Metropolitanowns two of Sargent's hundredsof charcoallikenesses,AnnaR. Mills

July 1902, Sargent insisted that Chase don his

(fig. 69) and Helen A. Clark(1924; 53.I86).

Beginningin 1890, when Sargentwas

old studiocoat.The costume,paletteandpoised brush,and Chase'sassuredstancesuggesthis dualpersonaas painterandgentleman.

Robinsonhad probablymet Sargentin the early I89os,when he was curatorof classical antiquitiesat the Museumof Fine Arts, Boston, and the artistwas paintingmuralsfor the Boston PublicLibrary.Robinsonhelped to raisefunds so that Sargentcould continue

awardedthe prestigiouscommissionfor muralsfor the BostonPublicLibrary,he was constantlypreoccupiedwith similarprojects for importantinstitutionsin Bostonandin Cambridge.Althoughhe hadpaintedonly a portionof a muralas an assistantto CarolusDuran,he was well preparedto undertake majordecorativeworkby his cosmopolitan education,academictrainingin Florenceand 29

30. MAN STANDING, HANDS ON HEAD 189o-191o

Charcoalon lightbluelaidpaper x I87/ in. (61.5 x 48 cm) of Gift Miss Emily Sargent, I930

241/4

30.28.1

staircase,andwas allowed free choice of contentandstyle. While he initiallyconsidered a subjectfrom Spanishliterature,he soon settled on Triumphof Religion, an erudite

Paris,extensivetravel,familiaritywith traditionalart,andwide circleof well-educated AmericanandEuropeanfriends.Stillonly in his mid-thirtiesby I890, he may havewished to establisha reputationas an even moreserious andmultifacetedartistthanhis subjectpicturesandhis increasinglysuccessfulportraits hadannouncedhim to be.

In the spiritof the AmericanRenaissancethe movementin architectureand artthat flourishedin the United Statesfrom I885 until about 1915-Charles

Follen McKim,

the Boston PublicLibrary'schief architect, wished to createan impressiveensemblethat invoked,and might even rival, classical precedents.He designeda buildingthatwas indebtedprincipallyto Henri Labrouste's beaux-arts-styleBibliothequeSainteGenevieve

(I844-50),

Paris, with quotations

from Leon BattistaAlberti'sChurchof San Francesco (Tempio Maletestiano, I447-56),

Rimini;andhe invited Sargent,Abbey, FrenchmuralistPierrePuvis de Chavannes, and sculptorsAugustusSaint-Gaudensand Daniel ChesterFrenchto decorateit.

Sargentwas askedto createmuralsfor the SpecialCollectionsHall, a long, windowless, barrel-vaultedcorridorat the top of the main 30

programthat describedthe evolution of religious thought from paganismthrough Judaismto Christianity.This theme would allow him to displayhis abilityto conceive and executean abstruseallegory,and it would requireextensivetravel,which he enjoyed.

For the projectSargentadopteda more calculatedtechnicalapproachthanhe used for portraits--drawing compositionalarrangements and studiesof individualfiguresand restraining his customarypainterlyverve-thus affirminghis respectfor the formalrigorsof the beaux-artstradition.The Metropolitan owns a representativeselection of the sort of life drawingsthat Sargentmade for the project, including Man Standing, Hands on Head (fig. 30), as well as Astarte (fig. 31), one of his

severaloil studiesfor the figureof the ancient MiddleEasterngoddess associatedwith love and fertilityin ThePagan Gods,paintedon the vault. The last elementsof Sargent's murals were installed in the library in

1919.

In I916 Sargenthad agreedto decorate the ellipticaldome of the rotundain the new extensionof the Museumof Fine Arts, Boston. In November 1921, a month afterthe rotundawas unveiled,he was askedto expandthe program,based on classicaland allegoricalthemes,onto the barrel-vaulted ceiling over the main stairwayto the rotunda, the ceilings of the corridorson either side of the staircase,and the wall thatthen served as the entranceto the library.In the Metropolitan are six drawingsfor the Boston museum commission,as well as smalloil studiesfor

DEATH AND VICTORY (study for mural,

3I. ASTARTE

32.

Ca. I89o-95

Harry Elkins Widener MemorialLibrary, HarvardUniversity)

Oil on canvas 38% x 12 in. (98.I x 30.5 cm)

1921-22

Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950

Watercolor,gouache, and graphite on white wove paper

50.130.3

in. (53 X 22.7 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950

207/8 X 815/16

50.130.84

Philosophyand Science(ca. 1921-25; 50.I30.I-2) for the library entrance wall.

While working at the Boston museum, Sargent undertook his third and most modest mural commission, canvases that flank a doorway on a landing of the main staircase of Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University. Painted in 1921-22,

I --"

ts

i.

=

-

the

subjects commemorate alumni who perished in World War I. To the left of the doorway is Death and Victory;to the right is Coming of the Americans to Europe. Two watercolors in

-

i|

the Metropolitan'scollection (see fig. 32) reflect the near-final designs.

31

Upon completingthe muralsfor the Museumof Fine Arts, Sargentremarkedto a friend:"Now the Americanthings are done, and so, I suppose,I may die when I like."

Three days before he was to sail for Boston to oversee the installation in April 1925, he

suffereda heartattackin his sleep and died.

Originallywell received,Sargent'smurals have since been ignored or dismissed,despite his preoccupationwith themduringthirty-five of his forty-eightyearsof professionalactivity.

Although they kepthim from otherpursuits, they were by no meansdetachedfrom them.

For example,the artistallowedthe imperatives of muralsand grand-mannerportraits to informeach other. His group portraits from about 1900, such as The Wyndham

Sisters,reiteratesome of the technicalchoices he madein his decorativeworks:broadly treatedforms, large scale, clearcontours,dramatictonalcontrasts,andfrieze-likearrangementsof figuresclose to the pictureplane.

Tripsthat Sargenttook to makestudiesfor

32

his muralsinspiredsubjectpicturesand landscapesin oil as well as bravurawatercolors.

The interdependenceof Sargent'smajor commissionsand his informalsubjectsis also demonstratedby worksthathe executedat the Westernfront in 1918,when battleswere still being waged. Sargenthad accepteda commissionfrom the BritishMinistryof Information'sWarMemorialCommitteeto createa picturethatwould honor the joint effortsof BritishandAmericanforces. At the end of a three-monthtour at the edge of the fightingin war-tornFrance,Sargent witnesseda scene thatinvolved only British troops and madeit the subjectof Gassed (I919; ImperialWarMuseum,London), a twenty-foot-long canvasin which soldiers blindedby mustardgas are led to treatment.

Gassed,a melodramaticpanoramaof pain, is distantin spiritfrom many much more candidwatercolorsin the Metropolitan's collectionthat Sargentpaintedat the front.

Although these sheets depictthe French

33. TOMMIES BATHING 1918

Watercolor,gouache, and graphiteon white wove paper 13% X 2078 in. (34.6 x 53 cm)

Gift of Mrs.FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.130.58 34. EGYPTIANS RAISING WATER FROM THE NILE 189o-91

Oil on canvas 25 X 21

in. (63.5 x 53-3 cm)

Gift of Mrs.FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.130.16

countrysidein ruins,the machineryof war, and camplife, the puffy clouds, foliage, andfigureslounging in deep grassor swimming (see fig. 33) often resembleSargent's holiday vignettes.

RECORDS OF TRAVEL AND OTHER STUDIES,

I890-I925

While Sargentwas focused on establishing his reputationas a portraitistin London and with paintingmuralsduringthe I89os, he began a processof self-reinventionas an artistthatwould culminateafter 1900.

It was then thattravelstudiesin oil and especially in watercolor,and canvasesinspiredby them, would occupy more of his time and

become a new source of criticaland financial support.

Having decidedto elucidatein the Boston Public Librarydecorationsthe origins of Westernreligion, Sargentvisited Egypt, Greece, and Turkeyto sketchandpaintjust afterhe receivedthe commissionin 1890.

In fact, his wish to traveland his longstandingfascinationwith exotic places may have promptedhim to contrivethe complex libraryprogram,which, as an empiricist,he was obliged to renderwith as much authenticity as possible.Among the recordsof this tripin the Metropolitan'scollection are EgyptiansRaising WaterfromtheNile (fig. 34), which shows men and women using a shaduf; a simpleirrigationdevice, to fill ditches, and 33

35. SKETCH OF SANTA SOFIA 1891

Oil on canvas 3I1/2 X 24/4 in. (80

x 61.6 cm)

Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.130.18

Sketch of Santa Sofia (fig. 35), a view

enlivenedby figureswhose minutesize emphasizesthe immenseinteriorvolume of the greatbuildingin Constantinople.

Throughoutthe libraryproject,Sargent traveledto researchandpaintsubjectpictures.

He went to Syria,Palestine,and Lebanonin 1905-6 andcreatedmorethanfortywatercolors and a dozen oils. Among them are Arab Woman(fig. 36) and Landscapewith Goatherd

(fig. 37). These worksreflectthe impactof Sargent's increasing use of watercolor on his

handlingof oil, andhis ultimateabilityto call on the two mediainterchangeably, broadly over fluid brushingthin, pigment paperor canvasto createinstantaneousimpressions.

34

Between

1900

and the beginning of World

WarI, Sargentenjoyedannualholidays that sometimes lasted three or four months.

He usually went with a group of family and friends to rural locales in temperate climates

where he could indulgehis passionfor pleinair work (see figs. 6i, 71). He favored regions

thathe had visited as a child:the Alps, the Italianlakedistrict,and Spain.Having passed July andAugust in such places,he often traveled on to Veniceor to destinationsfarther south. As he had alwaysdone, he recorded the sites andpeople, drawingin sketchbooks, paintingin watercolor,completinginformal oils, or makingstudiesfor more ambitious canvases,which, like four picturesin the

36. ARAB WOMAN 1905-6

Watercolor and gouache on off-white wove paper 177/8 X II/8 in. (45.4 x 30.2 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50. 30.43

37. LANDSCAPE WITH GOATHERD I905-6

Oil on canvas 241/4 X 3178 in. (61.6 x 8i cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 5o.I30.I7

35

38. PADRE SEBASTIANO Ca. I904-6

Oil on canvas in. (56.5 x 71.1 cm) Rogers Fund, I9Io 22'/4 x 28

11.30

Metropolitan'scollection,he exhibited and sold.

In PadreSebastiano(fig. 38), probably executedat Giomein, a village in the Italian Alps, Sargentcapturedthe priest'sthoughtful demeanorand describedhis interestin botanyby showing him in his clutteredbedroom makingnotes aboutthe flowersthat cover the table.Sargentbased TheHermit (I Solitario)(fig. 39) upon woodlandsketches thathe had paintedin Vald'Aosta, in the foothillsof the Alps in northwestItaly.

Although he seems to have been preoccupied with texturedbrushstrokesandpatternsof 36

light and shadowin renderingthe landscape, he includedtwo gazelles (contrivedfrom a stuffedspecimen)and a figurewhose harmonious relationshipwith his surroundings invokesreligiouscharacterssuch as Saint Anthony andphilosophicalideas such as pantheism.

ForBringingdownMarblefromthe Quarries to Carrara(fig.40), Sargentconsolidated many on-the-spotstudiesof workersin his accountof the gruelinglabor,conducted withoutmoderntechnology,at the historic Italian quarries. In TyroleseInterior(fig. 41) he

depictedpeasantspausingfor a benediction

39. THE HERMIT (IL SOLITARIO) 1908

Oil on canvas 373/4 x 38 in. (95.9 x 96.5 cm) Rogers Fund, 1911 11.3I

37

40. BRINGING DOWN MARBLE FROM THE QUARRIES TO CARRARA 1911

Oil on canvas 28/8 x 36/8 in. (71.4 x 91.8 cm) Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917 I7.97.I

38

41. TYROLESE

INTERIOR

I915

Oil on canvas 2818 X 22?16 in. (71.4 x 56 cm) George A. Hearn Fund, 1915 I5.142.I

beforetheirmiddaymealin an old castlein or nearSanktLorenzenthathadbeen transformedinto farmers'quarters.The dark paletteandthe religiousstatuesin the backgroundsuggestthe sombermood thataffected Sargent'sholidayin the Tyrol duringsummer 1914,when Austriadeclaredwar on Serbia.

Portablewatercolorswere well suitedto Sargent'speripateticsummersand, as he traveledmore often afterI900, his outputof radiantworksin the mediumincreaseddramatically.Beginningin 1903he showed such picturesto acclaimin London and New York, stimulatinga greatdemandfor them. Sargent engineeredhis careerso astutelythatby 1907, when he pledged not to acceptany more portraitcommissions,he had establisheda solid reputationas a watercolorist.

Sargent'sunfailinginterestin color and light was well servedby the transparencyand spontaneityof watercolor.His earlybiographer Evan Charteris remarked in 1927: "To

live with Sargent'swater-coloursis to live with sunshinecapturedand held." These works demonstratehis spreiatura,or studied nonchalance.One of his friendscharacterized the economy with which he suggested forms:"It is astoundingto note the almost magicalskillby which the swift touches of his brushbuild up and expressthe infinitevarieties of the surfacesand substanceswhich he was painting."Sargent'sgift for fashioning objectsas if by magic was enhancedby his unconventionalcompositions.He often croppedhis images dramatically,providing only partialviews of monumentsor fragments 39

of architecture.In pastoralsettingshe rejected broadvistas,ignoredthe sky,adoptedclose vantagepoints,anddirectedhis gaze downwardto grass,rocks,andbrooks.His broad applicationof pigment,indifferenceto details, andattentionto patternratherthanformmake manyimagesnearlyabstractandin some measureunresolved.

Between 1904 and 1908 Sargent paid

annualvisits to Vald'Aosta, where he usually settledat a pensionin the remotetown of Purtud.Sargent'sVald'Aosta watercolorsin the Metropolitan'scollection revealhis transformationof flowing pigmentsinto flowing brooks andhis fascinationwith light on

40

water:rippling,as in RushingBrook(fig.43), or relativelystill; reflectingobjectsalong the banksor transparent.Even an oil such as Alpine Pool (fig. 42) captures the appearance

of forms submergedin sparklingwater.

Sargentalso paintedthe mountainsat Val d'Aosta and the nearbySimplonPass during annual visits between 909 and I9I ; the FrenchAlps (I912); northernItaly (I913); and the Tyrol (1914). While he preferred near

views, he was sometimestemptedby panoramasand transitoryatmosphericconditions, as in Sirmione(fig.44), which recordsclouds over a peak at the edge of LakeGarda.

opposite 42. ALPINE

POOL

1907

Oil on canvas 38 in. (69.9 x 96.5 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950

271/2 X

50.I30 I5 left

43. RUSHING BROOK Ca. 1904-11

Watercolor,gouache, and graphite on off-white wove paper in. (46.8 x 31.4 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, I950 I83/ X I23/

50. 30.80i

below 44. SIRMIONE Ca. I9I3

Watercolorand gouache on off-white wove paper in. (40 x 53.6 cm) Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1915 153/4 X 21/16

15.142.5

41

45. VENETIAN CANAL Ca. I913 Watercolorand graphiteon off-white wove paper 153/4 X 21

in. (40 x 53.3 cm)

Purchase,Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, I9I5 15.142.10

Likemany of his contemporaries,Sargent was captivatedby Venice.Between 1898and 1913he made nine sojourns there, creating

more than 150watercolorsand oils. The principalattractionfor Sargentduringthese late visits to Venicewas sunlightshimmeringoff the canalsonto buildings,castingpatterns acrossthe ornament.While he occasionally capturedbroadvistas, as in VenetianCanal (fig.45), he most often paintedthe city as it is 42

seen from a gondola, exploitinglow vantage points, croppingforms abruptly,offering oblique,partialglimpsesof majorlandmarks and less familiarsites. Sargentwas enchanted by intimate,sometimesobscureviews, which appearin watercolorssuch as VenetianPassageway(fig.46). He noted, as he had also done earlier(see fig. 47), the gracefulmovement of the gondolierswith a marvelous graphicshorthand.

46. VENETIAN PASSAGEWAY Ca. I905 Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on white wove paper 21Y/16x 14/2

in. (53.9 X 36.8 cm)

Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, I950 50. 30.77

47. GONDOLIER I880-1900 Graphite on light buff wove paper 10% x 7% in. (27 x I9.9 cm)

Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50.I30. I I recto

43

48. GARDEN NEAR LUCCA Ca. I9I0 Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper 137/8

915/6

in.

(35.2 x 25.2

cm)

Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.I30.8Ii

49. ESCUTCHEON OF CHARLES V OF SPAIN 1912

andgraphiteon white Watercolor wovepaper 12 X 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm)

Purchase,JosephPulitzerBequest, 1915 I5.142.II

50. IN THE GENERALIFE 1912

waxcrayon,andgraphite Watercolor, on whitewovepaper 143/4x I77/ in. (37.5 X 45.4 cm)

Purchase,JosephPulitzerBequest, I9I5 I5.I42.8

Sunlightandshadowarethe near-universal protagonistsin watercolorsthat Sargent madein Italy and Spainbetween 1905and 1912.

GardennearLucca (fig. 48) celebrates

sunlighton stone and lush foliage. Escutcheon of CharlesVof Spain(fig.49) translatesthe relief representingthe emperor'scoat of armsinto a patternof saturatedlight and deep shadows.In the Generalife(fig. 50) depictsSargent'ssisterEmily paintingin the duskygardensof the Alhambrain Granada, as artistJanede Glehn, at the left, and a companion,Dolores Carmona,look on.

When WorldWarI limited Sargent's Europeanholidays,he found alpinesubjects on a 1916tripto the CanadianRockiesthatis representedin the Metropolitanby Campat Lake O'Hara,in BritishColumbia(fig. 5I).

In 1917 he visited longtime friends,the Deerings, in Miami,Florida.Vizcaya,James Deering's Renaissance-stylevilla, and its Italianategardensstrucka resonantchord; 44

familiarwith the old Europeanoriginals, Sargentwas delightedby theirnew American counterparts.He describedVizcayain a letter to Thomas A. Fox, an architectwith whom he had workedclosely in Boston:"The great big villa thatJamesDeering has built down here (Chalfinarchitect)is a mine of sketching.

It is like a giant VenetianVilla on the Brenta with columns& loggias & porticoesand shipsdown to the water,and darkgardens with statuesjustlike Frascati.I can'ttear myself away."

Of his Vizcayawatercolorsthe Metropolitan owns Terraceat Vijcaya (fig. 52), which

shows a carvedbalustradeand an urn-shaped finialagainstthe landscapeand ocean, and Man andPool, Florida(fig. 53), one of several studiesof a nude male madein the preserved naturalareaon the outskirtsof the property.

OtherFloridawatercolorsincludePalmettos (fig. 54), in which Sargentexploredpatterns of the spiky stalks.

I

v4 ^n

5I.

CAMP AT LAKE O'HARA

I916

Watercolorand graphite on off-white wove paper I53/4 x 21 in. (40 x 53.3 cm) Gift of Mrs. David Hecht, in memory of her son, Victor D. Hecht, 1932 32.II6

52. TERRACE

AT VIZCAYA

1917

Watercolorand graphite on white wove paper I33/4 X 21 in. (35 x 53.4 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50.I30.8In

46

53. MAN AND POOL,

FLORIDA

1917

Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on white wove paper I311/6 x 2015/6 in. (34.8 x 53.2 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50.130.62 54. PALMETTOS 1917

Watercolor, graphite, and wax crayon on white wove paper 151/4 X 203/4 in. (38.7 x 52.7 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950 50. 30.65

47

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THE FORMATION COLLECTION

55. Detail of IN THE GENERALIFE

(fig. 5o)

OF THE METROPOLITAN'S

OF SARGENT'S

In additionto forty-one oils by Sargent,of whichten areformalportraits,the Metropolitan owns more than335of his drawingsand watercolorsand four sketchbooksthatcontain more than200 images.These works reflect the artist'smultifacetedcareer,bearwitness to his long associationwith the Museum,as well as thatof his family,and documenttheir generosityandthatof severalunrelateddonors.

Likemost owners of Sargent'sworks duringthe late nineteenthcentury,the Metropolitanacquiredits firstpaintingby the artist througha commissionfor a portrait:thatof Marquand,completedin I897. The second arrivedin i905 when the Museumreceived the portraitof Chasefrom his pupils.

The worksby Sargentthatthe Metropolitan accessionedbetween 1905 and 193 represent the shift of his focus fromportraitsto more variedsubjects,paintedin oil and watercolor, and to his muralcommissions.These acquisitions also memorializethe cordialrelationship between Sargentand EdwardRobinson, which was sustainedafterSargent'sdeathby his sisters,who were responsiblefor his estate.

In 1910 and 1911the Metropolitanacquired threeoils. Gitanawas given by its most generous donor of Americanpaintings,GeorgeA. Hearn;PadreSebastianoand TheHermit (II Solitario)were purchasedfromthe artist.

But, like most othermuseums,the Metropolitan hadnot yet acquiredany of Sargent's watercolors.

Although Sargenthad paintedwatercolors since childhood,it was only after1900 thathe madethem as independentworksand showed them. At this time he wished to build respect for the mediumand, as an astutescholarhas recentlyargued,to "createa marketdemand

WORKS

for his watercolorsthatallowedhim to reducehis portraitactivitywithout having to relinquishhis position of priorityin the artistic spotlight."He sent them to the Carfax Galleryin 1903for his firstsolo exhibitionin London, and againto the samegallery in 1905and I908. He showed a watercolorat the New EnglishArt Club in 1904, contributedto the annualsat the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Coloursbeginningin 1904,andwas elected an associatesoon thereafterand a full memberin 1908.

Sargentrestrictedthe sale of these works until FebruaryI909, when he exhibited eighty-six sheets at M. Knoedlerand Company in New York.The BrooklynInstitute of Arts and Sciences(now the Brooklyn Museumof Art) purchasedeighty-threeof them for $20,000, pursuantto Sargent'sstipulation thatthe watercolorsbe sold en bloc to a museumor collectorin an Easternstate.

Brooklyn'sunprecedentedacquisitionseems to have strengthenedthe resolve of the Museumof Fine Arts, Boston-which had wished to purchasethatgroup-to buy the forty-fivesheets thatSargentintendedfor his next majorshow, even before it opened at Knoedlerin March1912.These wellreceivedexhibitionsandwell-publicizedsales encouragedthe Metropolitanalso to pursue Sargent'swatercolors.

On behalf of the trusteesRobinson approached the artist on December 17, 1912,

with a plea for eight or ten watercolors.

"Haveyou, by chance,"he wrote, "anynow on handby which you would like to be representedin our collection?And if not will you keep us in mindwhen you do some more?We shouldnaturallybe guided largelyby your 49

56. SPANISH FOUNTAIN 1912

Watercolor andgraphiteon white wovepaper 21 x

133/4

in. (53-3 X 34.9 cm)

Purchase,JosephPulitzerBequest,1915 15.142.6

ownselectionandif you sayyou havesome whichyouwouldrecommend, youwillhear frommeverypromptly." theplacement As Sargenthadorchestrated of hiswatercolorsin BrooklynandBostonandashe wouldwhenhe began,in 1913,to Art arrangeto sellthemto theWorcester Museum-he enteredintoanartfulnegotiationwiththeMetropolitan.

Respondingfrom

1914, Sargent wrote to Robinson that he was

still trying to decide which watercolorsto send;volunteeredto drop the price of each sheet to ?50; and offeredto include "thebest oil pictureI did in the Tirol last summer"for an additional ?400. The artist enclosed a photograph of TyroleseInteriorand wrote:

"I feel more justifiedthis time in actingon your repeatedsuggestionthatI should report to Robinson's on December 31, 1912, somethingthatstrikesme as worthy of the England Museum."In December 1915Sargentfinally request,he agreedto sellonlyone,but to the Metropolitanthe oil paintingand in the sent set aside others to coming promised ten watercolorsthathe had madein Spain, year.He wrote: Italy,and the Tyrol. The oil and the waterMuseum colors, which includedMountainStream thattheMetropolitan I amveryflattered shouldwanta fewof mywatercoloursandwishI (fig. 57), paintedduringone of Sargent's hadthechoicetooffer,butI havedoneveryfew Alpine holidays, andBoats(fig. 58), executed thisyear,andsoldtwoorthreeof them.I kept at LakeGarda,were put on displayin a backthetwobestformyself,butI wouldsellat gallery in JanuaryI916, togetherwith waterfor?75-it is of leastoneof themtotheMuseum colorsby WinslowHomerfromthe collection.

Fountain a fountainin Granada[Spanish (fig.56)]

thebestof thewater ... I shouldbegladtoreserve coloursthatI shalldonextyearfortheMuseum tomakeupeightortenasyousay.I hope?75 [$364;the equivalentof

$6,3I9

in I999] does not

seemanunreasonable price-it is a riseon thetwoprevious sales,butthesewereforan of watercolours. number enormous On January20, 1913,upon the recom-

mendationof curatorof paintingsBryson Robinsonagreedto purchase Burroughs, for?75,andtoldSargent SpanishFountain hisofferto thatthetrusteesappreciated reserveeightor tenwatercolors.However, aboutthesheetsthat Sargent'sambivalence he hadon handand,later,hisworriesabout transatlantic shippingduringWorldWarI delayedthesale.

Almosttwoyearslater,on December24, 50

In a letter of December 28, 1915, the

Metropolitan'ssecretary,Henry W. Kent, expressedto Sargentthe trustees'thanksfor his "generosityin giving them this opportunity" to acquirethe watercolors.Less than two weeks laterSargentproposedto the Museumanotherkey acquisition:MadameX. Sargenthad shown the portraitat the Carfax Galleryin 1905and at three other European exhibitions, in 1908, 1909, and 191 , before sending it to the 1915 Panama-Pacific Inter-

nationalExposition,San Francisco(where it appeared as Madame Gautrin). On January 8,

1916,he wrote Robinson,offeringthe picture to the Museum:"Myportraitof Mme. Gautreauis now, with some other things I sent from here, at the San FranciscoExhibition, and now that it is in America I rather

feel inclinedto let it stay thereif a Museum

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57. MOUNTAIN

STREAM

Ca. 1912-I4

Watercolor andgraphiteon off-white wovepaper 133/4 x 21

in. (34.9

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cm)

Purchase,Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1915 I5.142.2

shouldwant it. I supposeit is the best thing I have done. I would let the Metropolitan Museumhave it for ?i,ooo" [$4,762; $76,158 in 1999]-

RobinsonconveyedSargent'sofferto the Committeeon Purchasesin a letterof January 24 and addedthathe had "triedin vain for yearsto get this picturefromhim, firstfor the BostonMuseumandlaterfor the Metropolitan,but for personalreasonshe has always refusedto partwith it, andhis changeof decision thereforecomes as a completesurprise."

Robinsonfurthernoted:"Mr.Burroughs 52

agreeswith me in stronglyrecommending the purchase,and in regardingthis as an extremelyfavorableopportunity,both in the importanceof the work andthe moderate priceat which it is offered."The committee acceptedRobinson'srecommendation unanimously,andthe trusteesendorsedit.

Althoughthe deathof VirginieGautreau in 1915may have allayedSargent'sconcern aboutpublicityassociatedwith the sale of her portrait,he askedthe Metropolitanto be discreet.Replyingto the news of the intended purchaseon January31,he told Robinson:

58. BOATS 1913

Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper 515l/6 X 21 in. (39.9 x 53-3 cm) Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1915 I5.142.9

53

"I shouldprefer,on accountof the row I had with the lady yearsago, thatthe picture shouldnot be calledby her name, at any rate for the present,andthather nameshouldnot be communicatedto the newspapers(I dare say this latterrecommendationcomes too late)."The paintingwas installedasMadameX

in the Metropolitan's gallery of recent accessions in May 19I6. The acclaim it garnered more than thirty years after its scandalous debut is typified by the headline in the New YorkHerald on May I2, 1916: "Sargent Masterpiece Rejected by Subject Now Acquired

by Museum." Madame Xand Bringing down

59. Gallery of oil paintingsat the Metropolitan'smemorialexhibition,January4 to February14, 1926

60. Gallery of watercolorsat the memorialexhibition 54

6i. Sargent,with his sister Emily, painting at Simplon, 91ii. Private

collection

Marblefrom the Quarriesto Carrara,which was received in 1917 from the estate of collector Harris Brisbane Dick, were the last two works

by Sargent to enter the Museum before the artist's death on April 15, I925.

In the catalogue of the Metropolitan's 1926 memorial exhibition, Robinson noted that although Sargent's "visits to New York were rare and brief, he remained a steadfast friend of our Museum, greatly interested in its growth and a firm believer in its future."

Sargent had set aside watercolors; sold Madame Xat a favorable price; and, in I924, helped to arrange for the Metropolitan to purchase from the estate of Aureliano de Beruete y Moret, a former director of the Prado, Portraitofa Man (24.I97.I) by El Greco and The Libyan Sibyl (24.197.2)

by Michelangelo, a superb red-chalk drawing for the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The Metropolitan's memorial exhibition followed one at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and coincided with the largest memorial exhibition, which was held at the Royal Academy, London. It included fiftynine oil paintings dated between I876 and 1918 (fig. 59), of which forty-one were portraits, as well as sixty watercolors and two

drawings (fig. 60). Although memorial exhibitions were regular events at the Metropolitan, Sargent's was unusually popular.

More than 8,000 people attended the opening, the supply of 2,000 catalogues sold out within the first twenty-four hours, and at least 60,ooo visitors viewed the show during its installation.

The catalogue included an appreciation by critic Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer that cited especially the artist's reticence: Apartfrom the work that filled his life, history will have little to say of John Sargent.And this is what he would have wished. His work he gave lavishly to the world. Himself, including his thoughts abouthis work, he kept for his friends.... Few anecdoteshave been told about him, few opinions attributedto him, for he did not teach or lectureor write or submitto the interviewer,and "society,"especiallyin the latter partof his life, attractedhim little... .Unmarried, he found the domestic atmospherehe cravedin the close companionshipof his sisters and nieces.

Sargent's reticence has defeated efforts to confirm hypotheses that some of his works provoke about his taste, affections, and sexuality. Although such questions continue to 55

preoccupyscholarsof today,most are hesitantto makeassumptions.

In I927 the MetropolitanpurchasedThe WyndhamSistersfrom the sitters'nephew.At aboutthe sametime Violet SargentOrmond (Mrs.FrancisOrmond) and Emily Sargent (see figs.6i, 65) were consideringhow to dispose of materialnot includedin the July 1925 saleof theirbrother'sestateat Christie's, London.At firstthey gave a few worksto institutionsthathad directconnectionswith Sargentor thathe had decorated.Facedwith dispersinga massof largecharcoaldrawings for his murals,they enlistedthe help of Thomas Fox and distributedmany drawings to artschools for the use of students.The majorbeneficiarieswere the Museumof Fine Arts, Boston (which receivedmore than 500 drawings in 1928), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (which received about 200 drawings in

1928-and deaccessioned90 of them in I960), and the Fogg Art Museum,Harvard University(whichreceivedabout350 drawings andmorethan20 sketchbooksin five installmentsbetween I929 and 1937).In 1929-30 YaleUniversity,the Pennsylvania

(later Philadelphia) Museum of Art, the

WorcesterArt Museum,andAmherstand Dartmouthcolleges receivedat least ten drawingseach;severalother colleges and art schools receivedsmallergroups of drawings.

(For the most part, these drawings are kept in curatorial departments of the museums or in the museums associated with the colleges or

universities,and they are as accessibleto the general public as they are to art students.)

The gift to the Metropolitan in 1930 of six charcoal figure studies, including Man Standing, Hands on Head, was also modest, reflect-

ing the sisters'awareness,noted in a letter of November 25, 1927, from Emily Sargent to Fox, that "New York... has so many of John's good paintings." In 1931 Sargent's

sistersgave to the Metropolitana drawingof the duchess of Marlborough (Consuelo Vanderbilt; 31.43.1), who appears in his monumental portrait of the Marlborough family (I905; Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England), and two studies in graphite for Madame X (figs. 62, 63).

Five of the six additionalworksby Sargent that came to the Metropolitan between 1930

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opposite 62. MADAME X (MADAME PIERRE GAUTREAU) 1883-84 Graphite on off-white wove paper I2% x 8/4 in. (32 X 21 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond and Miss Emily Sargent, 1931 31.43.2

63. MADAME X (MADAME PIERRE GAUTREAU) I883-84

Graphiteon off-white wove paper 25/% X 8/4 in. (32 x 21 cm) Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond and Miss Emily Sargent, 1931

3143-3 right 64. MRS. HENRY GALBRAITH WARD 1887 or ca. I891-94

Oil on canvas 27 X 22

in. (68.6 x 55.9 cm)

Gift of Hon. Henry GalbraithWard, 1930 30.26

and 1940 were portraits: Mrs. Henry Galbraith Ward(fig. 64), given by her widower in 1930; Edward Robinson, given by his widow in 193I; Lady with the Rose, bequeathed by Charlotte Burckhardt's sister in 1932; Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, bequeathed by Edith Minturn Phelps Stokes in 1938;and Ada Rehan, bequeathed by its owner in 1940. In 1932 Campat Lake O'Harawas given by Mrs. David Hecht in memory of her son.

That the Metropolitanaccessioned no works at all by Sargent during the 1940S reflected the fact that American interest in late-nineteenthcentury American cosmopolitan painters was at its nadir. When patriotism was paramount and international impulses of all sorts were

distrusted, the American art world had little use for Sargent. By November 1947 illustrator James Montgomery Flagg would complain in a letter to the New YorkHerald Tribunethat the only work by Sargent on display at the Metropolitan was the portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Stokes. He continued: "The great portrait of the three Wyndham sisters has been hidden away for twelve years! The famous portrait of Mme. X is not hung. The finest portrait the museum has... is banished.

That is the marvelous portrait of Marquand."

Just two years later the Metropolitan's indifference to Sargent would cease, and its collection of his works would suddenly become one of the world's largest.

57

65. Violet Sargent Ormond, ca.

I930.

Private collection

66. ALLIGATORS 1917

Watercolor,graphite,and wax crayon on white wove paper X 153/16 x 2015/16 in. (40.1 53.2 cm) Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.130.63 67. MAN WITH

RED DRAPERY

After 1900

Watercolorand graphiteon white wove paper 14'/4x 21/8 in. (36.1 x 53.8 cm)

Gift of Mrs. FrancisOrmond, 1950 50.130.73

In November 1949 Violet Ormond contacted her distant cousin, Francis Henry Taylor, the Metropolitan's fifth director (I940-54), about her wish to make a substantial gift. The donor's grandson has speculated recently: I suspectthe late gift to the Metwas due to FrancisTaylor'sinfluence.The existenceof the drawingsand sketchbooksmust have come up in the course of conversation(maybe he asked aboutthem), andbecausehe was enthusiasticshe decidedto donate them. As she got older, she may have wonderedwhat to do with the mass of the materialleft over from studios, and Taylor providedthe right answerat the right time.

Anticipating the sale of her house in London, Mrs. Ormond wrote to Taylor on November 21, 1949: "I have a quantity of sketches, studies, some water colours, & some drawings by my brother. I should like to give them all to you, to dispose of as you see fit, to give to art schools, museums, or students, 58

whereyou thinkthey mightbe of service.

Youwould have an absolutelyfree hand,even destroyingthose you considerof no interest."

She added,"I also have quantitiesof photographsof my brother'sworks,"and offered these, too. "I shouldbe very gratefulif you would cableme the one word 'yes,"' she concluded.Taylorrepliedon November28 that the Museumwould welcome the gift "witha formalrecommendationto the trusteesthat distributionbe madeto otherpublic,tax-free institutionsin the United Statesin theirdiscretion,"andadded,"Weshouldof course want the photographsfor our library!"

Violet Ormond'sgift comprisedtwo dozen oil paintingsby Sargent,about 120 of his watercolors-in general,less resolved and more experimentalthanthose thathe had arrangedto sell (see figs.66, 67)-about 225 drawings,four sketchbooks,impressionsof five of his rarelithographs,and the photographs.Along with two sketchbooksby Sargent's mother (50.I30.150-5I),

a few

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drawingsandprintsby his friendsAbbey, Paul Helleu, and Albert Belleroche, two prints by Francisco Goya, and three Japanese prints, the collection arrived in two suitcases and several rolls and parcels in April 1950 and was accepted by the Museum's trustees in June. The Metropolitan kept all the works.

After the immense Ormond donation, the Metropolitan's collection of Sargent's drawings was enhanced by gifts of charcoal portraits of Helen A. Clark and Anna R. Mills (see fig. 69). In 1966 sculptor Paul Manship bequeathed to the Museum a drawing of himself (fig. 68), which demonstrates Sargent's gift of stenographic characterization and

suggeststhe rapportbetween the two artists.

In 1970the Museumpurchasedits thirddrawing forMadameX. Three yearslatergifts from two donors addedto the collection six large-scalestudiesfor Sargent'smuralsin the Boston PublicLibrary(1973.267.4) and the Museumof Fine Arts, Boston (I973.267.1-3 [see fig. 70], I973.268.1-2); these drawings, which Sargent'ssistershad given to the CorcoranGalleryof Art in 1928, hadbeen deaccessioned.

Since 1972 the Metropolitanhas acquired two oils by Sargent:a study from his student years of a male model standingbefore a stove (I972.32) and, in 1998,the dazzlingMrs.Hugh 69. ANNA R. MILLS I917

Charcoalon off-whitelaidpaper mountedto pulpboard 233/4 x i8 in. (60.3 x 45.8 cm)

Gift of Maryvan Kleeck, I954 54-96.2

68. PAUL MANSHIP January 30, 1921

Black chalk on pinkish-brownwove paper 221/8X 17/16 in. (56.I x 44-3 cm) Bequest of Paul Manship,I966 66.70

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70. APOLLO (study for Apollo and

Daphnemural, Museumof Fine Arts, Boston) Ca. 1918-20

Charcoalon off-white wove paper I63/4 X 21 in. (42.5 x 53.4 cm) Anonymous Gift, 1973 I973.267. I

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Hammersley. As the portrait pertains to paintings by Sargent already in the collection, it is a fitting climax to the story of the Metropolitan's acquisitions of Sargent's works to date. The favorable reviews that Mrs. Hugh Hammersley received in London in I893 quashed misgivings that Madame X had aroused nine years earlier. The sitter's lively pose echoes the informality of Sargent's Impressionist canvases, many of which are displayed in the same gallery in the American Wing. The portrait is among the earliest of Sargent's series of ravishing images of

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glamorous English women, culminating in The Wyndham Sisters. That Mrs. Hugh Hammersley came to the Metropolitan from a descendant of Charles Deering-James's brother, whom Sargent had met as a student in Paris and who had purchased the painting from Mrs. Hammersley's widower at Sargent's suggestion-vivifies additional aspects of the artist's career and patronage. Finally, the very fact that it was a gift reiterates the extraordinary generosity that created the Museum's collection of Sargent's works.

61

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NOTES

P. 5. "nomadicsort of life": Letter, FitzwilliamSargentto Emily Haskell Sargent,Florence, Italy, October io, 1870, Fitzwilliam SargentPapers, Archives of AmericanArt, SmithsonianInstitution, Washington, D.C. P. 5. "Baedekereducation":Stanley Olson, John Singer Sargent:His Portrait(New York, 1986), p. 45.

P. 8. "in view in his studies":Letter,FitzwilliamSargentto Emily HaskellSargent,Florence, Italy, October io, 1870, FitzwilliamSargentPapers,Archivesof AmericanArt;quoted in StephenD. Rubin,John SingerSargent'sAlpineSketchbooks (exhib. cat., The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, 1991),p. 9.

P. 15."andassimilated,of generations":Henry James, "JohnS. Sargent,"Harper'sNew MonthlyMagaiine 75, no. 449 (Oct. 1887), p. 684.

P. 15."homage to her beauty":Letter, Sargentto Ben del Castillo, 1882; quoted in RichardOrmond and Elaine Kilmurray,John SingerSargent:CompletePaintings.Vol. 1, TheEarly Portraits(New Haven, 1998), p. 113.

P. 50. eight or ten watercolors:Robinson added, "Please understand,however, that the acquisitionof these watercolors does not in any way affect our desire to have the large painting, of which I have written to you before, whenever the inspirationmay seize you." While the identity of the painting referredto is unknown, subsequentevents suggest that it might have been MadameX.

characterizedhim in 1902: Olson, John SingerSargent: His Portrait,p. 157.

P. 55. "in its future":EdwardRobinson, Note, in Memorial Exhibitionof the Workof John SingerSargent(exhib. cat., The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, 1926), p. xi.

P. 29. told his friend Lady Radnor: Undated remarksto Curtis and Radnorquoted in Olson,John SingerSargent: His Portrait,pp. 227-28.

P. 32. "die when I like":Adrian Stokes, "JohnSinger Sargent, RA, RWS," The Old Water-Colour Society'sClub (1925-26), vol. 3, ed. RandallDavies (London, 1926); quoted in Olson, John SingerSargent:His Portrait,p. 268.

P. 39."capturedand held": Evan Charteris,John Sargent (New York, 1927), p. 225.

P. 39."whichhe was painting":MartinHardie, Famous Water-colour Painters:J.S. Sargent,R.A., R. W.S., vol. 7 (London, 1930), pp. 4-5.

ca. 1909-

P. 5o."fromme very promptly":Except as noted, all letters quoted or cited are in The MetropolitanMuseumof Art Archives.

P. 52. "a complete surprise":See preceding note.

P. 28. "purelyas an accessory":I. N. Phelps Stokes, Random Recollectionsof a HappyLife, rev. ed., 1941, pp. 1 7-i8; ms., Departmentof American Paintings and Sculpture,The MetropolitanMuseumof Art.

sketching, Simplon Pass,

P. 49."in the artisticspotlight":BarbaraDayer Gallati, "Controlling the Medium:The Marketingof John Singer Sargent's Watercolors,"in Linda S. Ferberand Barbara Dayer Gallati,Mastersof ColorandLight: Homer,Sargent and theAmericanWatercolor Movement(exhib. cat., Brooklyn Museumof Art, 1998), p. 120.

P. 18. "provokingargument":"Eccentricitiesof FrenchArt," ArtAmateur2, no. 3 (Aug. 1884), p. 52.

P. 23.

71. Sargent

P. 44."tearmyself away":Letter, Sargentto Thomas A. Fox, BrickellPoint, Miami,Florida, April 10 [1917],Thomas A. Fox-John Singer SargentCollection, Boston Athenaeum.

P. 55. "of his sisters and nieces": MarianaGriswold Van Rensselaer,Introduction,in MemorialExhibitionofthe Work ofJohn SingerSargent,pp. xx-xxi.

P. 56. hesitant to make assumptions:For the typical response to this issue, see Elaine Kilmurrayand RichardOrmond, eds., John SingerSargent(exhib. cat., Tate Gallery, 1998), p. 14.

CompareTrevor J. Fairbrother,John SingerSargent(New York, 1994), pp. 8, 83.

P. 56. "John'sgood paintings":Letter, Emily Sargentto Thomas A. Fox, London, November 25, 1927, Thomas A. Fox-John Singer Sargent Collection, Boston Athenaeum.

P. 57. "portraitof Marquand":James Montgomery Flagg, "Sargentsin the Cellar,"letter to the editor dated November 27, 1947,New YorkHerald Tribune,December i, 1947, p. 22.

P. 58. "at the right time":Letter,RichardOrmond to StephanieL. Herdrich, Greenwich, England, July 30, 1997, Departmentof American Paintings and Sculpture,The MetropolitanMuseumof Art.

1.

Private collection 63

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adelson, Warren,et al. SargentAbroad,FiguresandLandscapes.New York, 1997.

Ormond, Richard,and Elaine Kilmurray.JohnSinger Sargent:CompletePaintings.Vol. I, TheEarly Portraits.New

Burke,Doreen Bolger. AmericanPaintingsin TheMetropolitan Museumof Art. Vol. 3, A Catalogueof Worksby Artists Bornbetweenz84G6and z864. Edited by KathleenLuhrs. New York, 1980. For Sargent, see pp. 219-74.

Haven, 1998.

Charteris,Evan.John Sargent.New York, 1927.

Ratcliff, Carter.JohnSingerSargent.New York, 1982.

Downes, William Howe.John S. Sargent:His Life and Work.

Boston, 1925.

Rubin, Stephen D.John SingerSargent'sAlpine Sketchbooks.

Exhib. cat. New York:The MetropolitanMuseumof Art,

Fairbrother,Trevor J.John SingerSargentand America.

Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1981;New York, 1986.

1991.

.John SingerSargent.New York, 1994.

Ferber,Linda S., and BarbaraDayer Gallati.Mastersof Color MoveandLight: Homer,Sargentand theAmericanWatercolor ment.Exhib. cat. Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museumof Art, 1998.

Getscher, Robert H., and Paul G. Marks.James McNeill WhistlerandJohn SingerSargent:TwoAnnotatedBibliographies. New York, 1986.

Goldfarb, Hilliard T., Erica E. Hirshler,and T. J. Jackson Lears. Sargent:TheLate Landscapes.Exhib. cat. Boston: Isabella Stewart GardnerMuseum, 1999.

Herdrich, StephanieL., and H. BarbaraWeinberg.American in TheMetropolitanMuseumof Art: Drawingsand Watercolors John SingerSargent.With an essay by MarjorieShelley. New York, 2000.

Promey, Sally M. Painting Religionin Public:John Singer Sargent's"Triumphof Religion" at theBostonPublicLibrary.

Princeton, 1999.

Simpson, Marc. UncannySpectacle:ThePublic Careerof the YoungJohnSingerSargent.With essays by RichardOrmond and H. BarbaraWeinberg. Exhib. cat. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and FrancineClarkArt Institute, 1997.

Strickler,Susan E., ed. AmericanTraditionsin Watercolor: The Worcester ArtMuseumCollection.With essays by Donelson Hoopes and JudithC. Walsh. New York, 1987.

Volk, Mary Crawford.JohnSingerSargent's"ElJaleo."

With essays by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., WarrenAdelson, and Elizabeth Oustinoff. Exhib. cat. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1992.

Weinberg, H. Barbara.TheLureof Paris:Nineteenth-Century AmericanPaintersand TheirFrenchTeachers.New York, I99I.

.John SingerSargent.New York, 1994.

Hills, Patricia,et al.John SingerSargent.Exhib. cat. New York:Whitney Museumof American Art, 1986.

James, Henry. "JohnS. Sargent."Harper'sNew Monthly Magazine75, no. 449 (Oct. 1887), pp. 683-9I. Reprintedin Henry James, ThePainter'sEye: Notes and Essays on the PictorialArts,edited by John L. Sweeney. Cambridge,Mass., 1956.

Kilmurray,Elaine, and Richard Ormond, eds.John Singer Sargent.Exhib. cat. London: Tate Gallery, 1998.

MemorialExhibitionof the WorkofJohn SingerSargent.

Exhib. cat. New York:The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, 1926.

Mount, Charles Merrill.JohnSingerSargent:A Biography.

New York, 1955.

Olson, Stanley.John SingerSargent:His Portrait.New York, 1986.

Ormond, Richard.JohnSingerSargent:Paintings,Drawings, Watercolours.

London, 1970.

64

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors acknowledge with gratitude Richard Ormond, Elaine Kilmurray,WarrenAdelson, and Elizabeth Oustinoff, who shared their knowledge of Sargent's accomplishments; MarjorieShelley, who probed the artist's technique; Kate Rubin, who gathered and verified information on Sargent's oils in the collection; Jeanie M. James and Stephen Nonack, who assistedwith archivalsources;Dana Pilson and Catherine Scandalis,who organized materials;the staffs of the Metropolitan'sPhotograph Studio and Photograph and Slide Library,who created and systematized the visual record of our Sargent collection, with help from the American Wing technicians, Don Templeton, Gary Burnett, Sean Farrell, and Rob Davis; and Michael B. Weinberg and Matthew Tirschwell, who offered encouragement.

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