John Singer Sargent (1856

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John Singer Sargent(1856 1925)

• Portrait of a Boy
• c. 1890

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John Singer Sargent

• Before Sargent's birth, his father FitzWilliam
  was an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in
  Philadelphia 1844-1854.
• After John's older sister died at the age of two,
  his mother Mary (née Singer) suffered a
  breakdown, and the couple decided to go abroad to
  recover.

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• The Sargent family remained nomadic expatriates
  for the rest of their lives.
• Though based in Paris, Sargent's parents moved
  regularly with the seasons to the sea and the
  mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and
  Switzerland.

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Sargents Birth

• While Mary was pregnant, they stopped in
  Florence, Italy because of a cholera epidemic.
• Sargent was born there in 1856. A year later, his
  sister Mary was born. After her birth,
  FitzWilliam reluctantly resigned his post in
  Philadelphia and accepted his wife's entreaties
  to remain abroad.

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• They lived modestly on a small inheritance and
  savings, living a quiet life with their children.
  
• They generally avoided society and other
  Americans except for friends in the art world.
• Four more children were born abroad, of whom only
  two lived past childhood.

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• Though his father was a patient teacher of basic
  subjects, young Sargent was a rambunctious child,
  more interested in outdoor activities than his
  studies.
• As his father wrote home, "He is quite a close
  observer of animated nature."

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• His mother was quite convinced that traveling
  around Europe, and visiting museums and churches,
  would give young Sargent a satisfactory
  education.
• Several attempts to have him formally schooled
  failed, owing mostly to their itinerant life.
• Sargent's mother was a fine amateur artist and
  his father was a skilled medical illustrator.

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• Early on, his mother gave him sketchbooks and
  encouraged drawing excursions.
• Young Sargent worked with care on his drawings,
  and he enthusiastically copied images from The
  Illustrated London News of ships and made
  detailed sketches of landscapes.
• FitzWilliam had hoped that his son's interest in
  ships and the sea might lead him toward a naval
  career.

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• At thirteen, his mother reported that John
  "sketches quite nicely, has a remarkably quick
  and correct eye.
• If we could afford to give him really good
  lessons, he would soon be quite a little artist.
• At age thirteen, he received some watercolor
  lessons from Carl Welsch, a German landscape
  painter.

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• Though his education was far from complete,
  Sargent grew up to be a highly literate and
  cosmopolitan young man, accomplished in art,
  music, and literature.
• He was fluent in French, Italian, and German.
• At seventeen, Sargent was described as "willful,
  curious, determined and strong" (after his
  mother) yet shy, generous, and modest (after his
  father).
• He was well-acquainted with many of the great
  masters from first hand observation, as he wrote
  in 1874, "I have learned in Venice to admire
  Tintoretto immensely and to consider him perhaps
  second only to Michelangelo and Titian."

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Training

• An attempt to study at the Academy of Florence
  failed as the school was re-organizing at the
  time, so after returning to Paris from Florence,
  Sargent began his art studies with Carolus-Duran.
  
• The young French portrait artist, who had a
  meteoric rise, was noted for his bold technique
  and modern teaching methods, and his influence
  would be pivotal to Sargent during the period
  from 1874-1878

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• In 1874, on the first attempt, Sargent passed the
  rigorous exam required to gain admission to the
  École des Beaux-Arts, the premier art school in
  France.
• He took drawing classes, which included anatomy
  and perspective, and gained a silver prize

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• He also spent much time in self-study, drawing in
  museums and painting in a studio he shared with
  James Carroll Beckwith.
• He became both a valuable friend and Sargent's
  primary connection with the American artists
  abroad.
• Sargent also took some lessons from Léon Bonnat

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• Sargent was the star student in short order.
• It was noted in 1874 that Sargent was "one of the
  most talented fellows to ever come along his
  drawings are like the old masters, and his color
  is equally fine.
• Sargent's excellent command of French and his
  superior talent made him both popular and
  admired.
• Sargent would meet giants of the art world,
  including Degas, Rodin, Monet, and Whistler.

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• In December 1889, the expatriate artist John
  Singer Sargent, accompanied by his younger sister
  Violet, arrived from London at New York harbor.

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Portraitist

• Not yet thirty-four, Sargent was approaching the
  highpoint of his fame on both sides of the
  Atlantic as a portraitist.

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• His previous American visit, an eight-month trip
  undertaken in 18871888, had resulted in an
  enthusiastic reception, many new commissions, and
  the promise of future contacts in Boston,
  Newport, and New York.

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Newport, Rhode Island

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• By the turn of the 20th century, many of the
  nation's wealthiest families were summering in
  Newport, including the Vanderbilts, Astors and
  Widener family who constructed the largest
  "cottages", such as The Breakers (1895) and
  Miramar.
• Many of the homes were designed by the New York
  architect Richard Morris Hunt, who himself kept a
  house in Newport.

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• They came for a brief social season to grand,
  gilded mansions with elaborate receiving, dining,
  music and ballrooms, but with few bedrooms, since
  the guests were expected to have cottages of
  their own.

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The Breakers

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Chateau-sur-Mer

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Belcourt castle
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• Newport was known for being the city of some of
  the "Summer White Houses" during the
  administrations of Presidents Dwight D.
  Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

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• Today, many mansions continue in private use.
• Others, including Hammersmith Farm, the mansion
  from which Jackie Kennedy was married, are now
  open to tourists as house museums.

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• Still others were converted into academic
  buildings for Salve Regina College in the 1930s
  when the owners could no longer afford their tax
  bills.

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• Like Gilbert Stuart before him, (remember George
  Washingtons portrait that we studied) Sargent
  painted formal portraits for the Gilded Ages
  patrician class in the manner of European
  aristocratic portraiture.

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• He also brought with him a fresh, new way to
  depict a subject that was popular in both England
  and the United States ---
• children
• at a time when childhood was being singled out
  as a critical period in human development (and in
  national progress).

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Historically this is a new concept..

• Because now children were understood to be the
  direct link to the future, they warranted special
  attention.

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• From the widespread manufacturing of special
  books, toys, and clothing,
• To child protection laws,
• The later nineteenth century ushered in what a
  1907 article in Cosmopolitan magazine called the,
  
• age of the child.

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Child Protection Laws

• Lets take a moment and discuss how children were
  a major work force in America at this time.
• These were not the children of the Upper Class.

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• In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven
  machines replaced hand labor for the making of
  most manufactured items.
• Factories began to spring up everywhere, first in
  England and then in the United States.
• The owners of these factories found a new source
  of labor to run their machines children.
• Operating the power-driven machines did not
  require adult strength, and children could be
  hired more cheaply than adults.
• By the mid-1800's, child labor was a major
  problem.

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• Children had always worked, especially in
  farming. But factory work was hard. A child with
  a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day,
  six days a week, to earn a dollar.
• Many children began working before the age of 7,
  tending machines in spinning mills or hauling
  heavy loads.
• The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty.
  Some children worked underground, in coal mines.
  The working children had no time to play or go to
  school, and little time to rest. They often
  became ill.

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The Mill Some boys and girls were so small they
had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend
broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins.
Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Georgia.

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Newsies Out after midnight selling extras. There
were many young boys selling very late. Youngest
boy in the group is 9 years old. Harry, age 11,
Eugene and the rest were a little older.
Washington, D.C.

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Miners View of the Ewen Breaker of the
Pennsylvania Coal Co. The dust was so dense at
times as to obscure the view. This dust
penetrated the utmost recesses of the boys'
lungs. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands
over the boys, prodding or kicking them into
obedience. South Pittston, Pennsylvania.

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The Mill One of the spinners in Whitnel Cotton
Mill. She was 51 inches high. Has been in the
mill one year. Sometimes works at night. Runs 4
sides - 48 cents a day. When asked how old she
was, she hesitated, then said, "I don't
remember," then added confidentially, "I'm not
old enough to work, but do just the same." Out of
50 employees, there were ten children about her
size. Whitnel, North Carolina.

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For the Rich and Privileged

• Children of these families were viewed entirely
  differently. They were members of families with
  power and prestige.
• However, the economic source of power and
  prestige is not just based on income primarily,
  but the ownership of capital goods (including
  patents, good will, and professional reputation).
  
• Such ownership should be distinguished from the
  possession of consumers' goods, which is an index
  rather than a cause of social standing.

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• The wealth of the period is highlighted by the
  American upper class' opulence, but also by the
  rise of American philanthropy (referred to by
  Andrew Carnegie as the "Gospel of Wealth") that
  used private money to endow thousands of
  colleges, hospitals, museums, academies, schools,
  opera houses, public libraries, symphony
  orchestras, and charities.

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• Understanding American society at that time will
  help you to appreciate the clientele of Sargent.

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John Singer Sargent ..

• Dismissing his contemporaries sentimental
  approach to childhood as a period of lost
  innocence, Sargent approached his youthful
  sitters directly, painting them naturalistically
  and with a keen, psychologically penetrating eye.

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• His many portraits of the young heirs of
  Americas upper class also helped to further the
  artists career, pleasing conservative critics
  and reassuring future patrons who might harbor
  some lingering doubts as to whether they wanted
  to submit themselves to Sargents forceful
  brushwork and bravura technique.

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• Sargents portrait of the young Homer
  Saint-Gaudens, the son of the sculptor Augustus
  Saint-Gaudens (Robert Shaw Memorial), and his
  mother Augusta, a cousin of Winslow Homer (The
  Veteran in a New Field), is an intimate portrait
  for a friend, not a commission that paid the
  bills.

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• Sargent first encountered Saint-Gaudens in Paris
  in 1878.
• When the artists met again in New York in 1890,
  Saint-Gaudens expressed interest in sculpting an
  image of Sargents sister Violet and the painting
  was done in the spirit of an exchange.

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• Nonetheless, the fact that Sargent preferred a
  generic title, Portrait of a Boy, to the specific
  name of the child, and excluded his mothers name
  entirely may indicate the artists desire to
  elevate his depiction of Homer Saint-Gaudens to a
  universal statement about the nature of boys (or
  perhaps just American ones).

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• In Portrait of a Boy, ten-year-old Homer
  confronts the artist and viewer head-on and eye
  to eye with a bored, yet penetrating glance,
  while behind him, and painted in a more summary
  manner, Augusta is absorbed in reading.

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Lets take a closer look.

• The difference between the two poses.
• What does their body language say about how each
  sitter probably felt about posing for this
  picture?

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• Homer is dressed (uncomfortably, it appears) in a
  Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, an outfit based on
  the title character from Frances Hodgson
  Burnetts wildly popular, serialized story of
  Cedric, an American boy who, through Yankee
  ingenuity and the wisdom imparted by his mother,
  was able to lay claim to his aristocratic English
  heritage.

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Yankee Ingenuity

• Yankee ingenuity is an American English reference
  to the self-reliance of early colonial settlers
  of New England, United States.
• It describes an attitude of make-do with
  materials on hand. It is inventive improvisation,
  adaptation and overcoming of dire straits when
  faced with a dearth of materials.

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• Thomas
• Gainsboroughs
• "fancy picture"
• The Blue Boy

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• Cedrics costume, derived from the attire worn by
  Thomas Gainsboroughs Blue Boy of c.1770, was so
  popular with mothers that, by the turn of the
  century, wearing it became synonymous with being
  a mamas boy.

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• Homer is dressed in an outfit based on a story
  that was extremely popular with mothers.
• This costume was also beginning to be associated
  with being a mammas boy.
• Do you think Homer is portrayed as a mammas
  boy and to point out why or why not?

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• How would you pose under similar circumstances?

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• Homer, wearing his fancy suit, does not appear to
  be the obedient child listening to his mothers
  every word.

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• We know from Homers adult recollections of these
  sittings that his mother, Augusta was vainly
  attempting to entertain her son with the story of
  a naval battle from the War of 1812.

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• Sargent expressed the boys impatience and
  nervous energy not only through his pose but also
  through the structure of the composition.

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Take a closer look

• The child slumps sideways in the ornate studio
  chair.

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• And while his right foot turns languidly inward,
  his left foot is braced against the rung, ready
  to spring.

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• The latent energy of his spread, bent fingers
  matches the complexity of the swirling pattern of
  the red carpet, and this unease is intensified by
  Homers pose, which is at a slight angle to both
  the viewer and to his mother.

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• How has Sargent used the room and accessories in
  this painting to intensify Homers feeling of
  impatience?

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• Who is more important in this double portrait?
• How can you tell?

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• How did the artist emphasize Homers importance?

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Answer

• Sargent has positioned Homer in the foreground at
  the center of the painting.
• The boy sprawls across a large, ornate chair and
  looks directly at the viewer (or painter).
• There is a strong light shining on his face,
  hands, and bowtie, and he is painted in more
  detail than his mother is.
• His importance is also reflected in the title,
  Portrait of a Boy.

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• As with Sargents more ambitious pictures, the
  portrait of Homer and his mother was conceived
  with an eye to enriching the painters reputation.

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• Critics were quick to praise the immediacy of the
  subject
• The exquisite truth of its pose and the rare
  vitality of every line of the body, not less than
  the beautiful face itself reveal the power of a
  master.

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• The painting won a gold medal at the Art Club of
  Philadelphia the year it was painted.

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• Portrait of a Boy was one of the works Sargent
  chose to exhibit at the Chicago Worlds Fair in
  1893.

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John Singer Sargent

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"The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit", (1882),

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Paul Helleu Sketching with his Wife,1889

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• Fredrick
• Law
• Olmstead

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• Lady Agnew's direct gaze and informal pose,
  emphasized by the flowing fabric and lilac sash
  of her dress ensure the portrait's striking
  impact.
• Andrew Noel Agnew, a barrister who had inherited
  the baronetcy and estates of Lochnaw in Galloway,
  commissioned this painting of his young wife,
  Gertrude Vernon (1865-1932), in 1892.
• It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898 and
  made Sargent's name.
• The sculptor Rodin described him as 'the Van Dyck
  of our times'. Portrait commissions poured in and
  Sargent enjoyed something of a cult following in
  Edwardian society. It also launched Lady Agnew as
  a society beauty.

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Alice Vanderbilt Shepard, age 13

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• Margaret Louisa
• Vanderbilt

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Robert Louis Stevenson and His wife
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Robert Louis Stevenson

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Morning Walk

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• "In Roosevelt's official presidential portrait
  Sargent seized upon two of the President's most
  salient characteristics, physical vitality and a
  self-assurance bordering on arrogance, and he
  painted a tour de force of nuanced blacks, grays,
  browns, and creams. . . .
• "The famous expatriate artist arrived in America
  in January 1903 and soon received a letter from
  Roosevelt inviting him to live in the White House
  during the month of February to work on the
  portrait. . . .

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• "Together Sargent and Roosevelt toured the
  White House while Sargent looked for proper light
  and a good pose. . . . As Roosevelt led the way
  upstairs, so the story goes, he said, 'The
  trouble with you Sargent, is that you don't know
  what you want.
• 'No,' replied the artist, "the trouble, Mr.
  President, is that you don't know what a pose
  means.' Roosevelt turned sharply back, grasped
  the newel-post and snapped, 'Don't I!' 'Don't
  move an inch. You've got it now,' responded
  Sargent. . . . .
• "Sargent formalized the pose as an official
  portrait demands, but the highly colored face and
  hand bring the painting to vivid life. . . . The
  expression--a near scowl with narrowed eyes
  focused on the view--and the vigorously modeled
  head compel attention and respect."

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Sitwell Family From left Edith Sitwell
(1887-1964), Sir George Sitwell, Lady Ida,
Sacheverell Sitwell (1897-1988), and Osbert
Sitwell (1892-1969)

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• His most controversial work, Portrait of Madame X
  (Madame Pierre Gautreau) (1884) is now considered
  one of his best works, and was the artist's
  personal favorite.
• Sargent stated in 1915, "I suppose it is the best
  thing I have done."

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Madam X

• When the portrait was unveiled in Paris at the
  1884 Salon, it aroused such a negative reaction
  that it likely prompted Sargent's move to London.
  
• Sargent's self-confidence had led him to attempt
  another risky experiment in portraiturebut this
  time it unexpectedly back-fired.
• The painting was not commissioned by Madame
  Pierre Gautreau and Sargent pursued her for the
  opportunity, quite unlike most of his portrait
  work where clients sought him out.

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• Sargent wrote to a mutual acquaintance
• "I have a great desire to paint her portrait and
  have reason to think she would allow it and is
  waiting for someone to propose this homage to her
  beauty. ...you might tell her that I am a man of
  prodigious talent."

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• It took well over a year to complete the
  painting.The first version of the portrait of
  Madame Gautreau, with the famously plunging
  neckline, white-powdered skin, and arrogantly
  cocked head, featured an off-the-shoulder dress
  strap which made the overall effect more daring
  and sensual.

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• Sargent changed the strap to try to dampen the
  furor, but the damage had been done.
• French commissions dried up and he told his
  friend Edmund Gosse in 1885 that he contemplated
  giving up painting for music or business.

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• Madame X
• Madame Pierre
• Gautreau, 1884

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Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood, 1885

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• John D
• Rockefeller
• c. 1917

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Essay Question 1

• Homer is dressed in an outfit based on a story
  that was extremely popular with mothers.
• This costume was also beginning to be associated
  with being a mammas boy.
• Do you think Homer is portrayed as a mammas
  boy and to point out why or why not?

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Essay Question 2

• How has Sargent used the room and accessories in
  this painting to intensify Homers feeling of
  impatience?

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Essay Question 3

• How did the artist emphasize Homers importance?

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Essay Question 4

• Sargent made his living painting portraits of
  wealthy Americans and Europeans.
• How do you think this work, done for a friend,
  might have differed if it had been commissioned
  by a wealthy family who wanted to hang it in a
  prominent place in
• their home?

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Essay Question 5

• Sargent was praised for his truthful portrayal
  of children at a time when childhood was becoming
  an important focus in Europe and America.
• Pretend you are an art critic and explain what
  you consider to be truthful about Homer
  Saint-Gaudens in this work.
• Study closely the figures in this painting.

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