John Singer Sargent

Artist Biography

John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, to American parents and schooled as a French artist, heavily influenced by the Impressionist movement, the Spanish Master Velazquez, the Dutch Master Frans Hals, and his teacher Carolus-Duran. His paintings were the rage in Paris until the scandal of his Madame X painting at the 1884 Salon. Discouraged at the rejection, even considered leaving art at the age of 28, he left Paris and settled in England where he reached the height of his fame.

Between 1877 and 1925, John Singer Sargent did over 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors along with countless charcoal sketch-portraits and endless pencil drawings. He painted two United States presidents, the aristocracy of Europe, the new and emerging tycoons and barons of business -- Rockefeller, Sears, Vanderbilt; and he painted gypsies, tramps, and street children with the same gusto and passion. He hiked through the Rocky Mountains with a canvas tent under pouring rain to paint the beauty of waterfalls, and painted near the front lines during World War I to capture the horrors of war.

Extremely bright, extremely gifted, an intense hard worker, he was the last great generalist. It is hard to put a label on him for he could master so many different painting styles. He was an Impressionist, a Classical Portraitist, a Landscape Artist, a Water Colorist, a Muralist of public art, and even started sculpting at the last of his life. He was all of these things and yet he was none of them in total. He always worked within the wide, rich textured pallet of known and established styles. He was the most celebrated portraitist of his time but left it at the very height of his fame to devote full time to landscape painting, water colors and public art.

John Singer Sargent Art, Prints and Posters Collection