Date: Fri 02-Jul-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: MELISS

Quick Words:

Singer-Sargent-Portland

Full Text:

John Singer Sargent

PORTLAND, MAINE - The elegant portraits of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

have indelibly formed our impression of high society at the turn-of-the-

century. However, portraiture was only one aspect of the career of this

remarkably gifted and prolific artist. "John Singer Sargent," on view through

September 26 at the Portland Museum of Art, features 28 works, including oils,

watercolors, and drawings, that provide an overview of the full spectrum of

Sargent's concerns and achievements as an artist. This exhibition, drawn from

the Museum's permanent collection and several private collections, has been

organized to coincide with a major retrospective of Sargent's work at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Sargent was born in Florence, Italy, to American parents and was raised in

cosmopolitan European society. His artistic talent revealed itself early, as

evidenced by "The Alps, Blumlisalp und Oschinensee" (1870), an accomplished

watercolor by the budding 14-year-old artist. When he was 18, he moved with

his family to Paris and began his first formal studies with the fashionable

portraitist Carolus-Duran.

Within a few years he had begun to enjoy success and patronage himself as a

painter of society portraits. His paintings of Mr and Mrs Henry St John Smith

(1880 and 1883) reflect the dramatic, spontaneous style that earned him

recognition during his years in Paris. In 1884, he moved his studio to London

and gradually built on his early acclaim until, by the turn of the century, he

was the leading portraitist in both Britain and America.

From the start of his career, Sargent also painted landscapes and genre

scenes, many of which derived from his seasonal travels throughout Europe and

North Africa. This aspect of Sargent's work is represented by an early oil

sketch of the Capri girl (Rosina Ferrara, one of his most famous subjects) as

well as oils and watercolors from his extensive travels in Spain, Italy,

Africa, and the Alps.

Sargent ceased painting portraits in 1907 to focus on other aspects of his

art. (Most of his portraits after that date took the form of drawings, of

which there are several examples in the exhibition.) The last two decades of

his life were increasingly devoted to commissions for public murals. Charcoal

sketches for murals at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts,

Boston, reveal the exhaustive preparation that went into these decorations,

which took the artist years to develop and complete. His involvement with

these projects and the onset of World War I brought Sargent to the United

States more than ever during these years. He even found his way to remote

coastal Maine, as evidenced by "Woods in Maine" (1922), painted on Ironbound

Island during a summer visit with friends. Sargent passed away three years

later, on the eve of the unveiling of the last of his Boston Museum murals.

The Sargent exhibitions on view throughout New England this summer mark the

first occasion since the memorial exhibitions mounted after his death that so

many of the artist's works have been gathered for public display.

The museum, Seven Congress Square, is open 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday, Wednesday,

Saturday, and Sunday, and 10 am to 9 pm on Thursday and Friday. For

information, 800/639-4067.