Four more children were born abroad, of whom only two lived past childhood. They generally avoided society and other Americans except for friends in the art world. They lived modestly on a small inheritance and savings, leading a quiet life with their children. After her birth, FitzWilliam reluctantly resigned his post in Philadelphia and accepted his wife's request to remain abroad. While Mary was pregnant, they stopped in Florence, Tuscany, because of a cholera epidemic. Although based in Paris, Sargent's parents moved regularly, spending seasons at the sea and at mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. They remained nomadic expatriates for the rest of their lives. After John's older sister died at the age of two, his mother, Mary Newbold Singer (née Singer, 1826–1906), suffered a breakdown, and the couple decided to go abroad to recover. 1820 in Gloucester, Massachusetts), was an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia from 1844 to 1854. Before John Singer Sargent's birth, his father, FitzWilliam (b. Sargent was a descendant of Epes Sargent, a colonial military leader and jurist. In addition to the beauty, sensation, and innovation of his oeuvre, his same-sex interests, unconventional friendships with women, and engagement with race, gender-nonconformity, and emerging globalism, are now viewed as socially and aesthetically progressive, and radical. The exhibition in the 1980s of Sargent's previously hidden male nudes served to spark a re-evaluation of his life and work, and its psychological complexity. Art historians generally ignored society artists such as Sargent until the late 20th century. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. During the next year following the scandal, Sargent departed for England where he continued a successful career as a portrait artist.įrom the beginning, Sargent's work is characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. An early submission to the Paris Salon in the 1880s, his Portrait of Madame X, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter in Paris, but instead resulted in scandal. He enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, Spain, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.īorn in Florence to American parents, he was trained in Paris before moving to London, living most of his life in Europe. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. John Singer Sargent ( / ˈ s ɑːr dʒ ən t/ Janu– April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury.
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