American artist John Singer Sargent (1856\u20131925) arrived in Paris in 1874 as a talented and ambitious young man determined to make a name for himself. About a decade later, Sargent left Paris for London after his portrait Madame X\u00a0(1883-84) had caused a scandal and alienated his patrons.\u00a0Sargent and Paris, an exhibition on view through August 3 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, focuses on this crucial period in the artist\u2019s career. It allows us to appreciate the sumptuous brushwork and compositional daring that contributed to his great success. It also underscores the fact that despite his modern techniques and penchant for provocation, Sargent held \u201cself-consciously aristocratic\u201d views about art and life.<\/p>\n
John Singer Sargent, 1903<\/p>\n
The artist was born in Florence to expatriate American parents. His father, FitzWilliam Sargent, had retired early from practicing eye surgery in Philadelphia. His mother, Mary Newbold Singer Sargent, was the daughter of a prosperous Philadelphia tanner and hide merchant. The couple\u2019s first child had died at the age of two, and they had traveled to Europe to recover from the loss. At Mary\u2019s insistence, the couple had stayed in Europe, living on her inheritance. They moved seasonally between France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Sargent was raised in elite cultural circles and became fluent in several languages.<\/p>\n
Mary, herself an amateur watercolorist, encouraged her son\u2019s interest in art. Sargent assiduously practiced sketching and studied for a time at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. But he and his parents soon agreed that his talent would bloom best in Paris.<\/p>\n
France had recently passed through a period of war, political crisis and revolution. In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War precipitated the collapse of France\u2019s Second Empire under Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Months after the French defeat in January 1871, the workers of Paris revolted and established the Commune. The French Army had drowned this uprising in blood and restored capitalist order.\u00a0<\/p>\n
French imperialism was in full bloom. The Second Industrial Revolution was yielding not only innovations like railroads and electric lighting, but also a new bourgeoisie of industrial capitalists and financiers. This was the class from which Sargent\u2019s patrons later came. It had generally conservative tastes and found its ideological expression in bourgeois individualism and aestheticism. The new bourgeoisie pursued\u00a0haute couture and conspicuous displays of its wealth.<\/p>\n
But French society was polarized. Poverty was widespread, and the social system ensured a supply of cheap labor. In the wake of the defeat of the Commune, French workers faced intense repression and harsh conditions, including unemployment and poverty. The rise of heavy industry in areas near Paris led to \u201csuburbanization\u201d of a particular kind, the increasing segregation of working class families in outlying districts.<\/p>\n
Capri Girl on a Rooftop, 1878<\/p>\n
On his arrival in Paris in 1874, Sargent began studying at the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts, where he absorbed the academic tradition. He also joined the atelier of Carolus-Duran (1837\u20131917), who was renowned as a portraitist of high society. Carolus-Duran stressed realism, surface and bravura brushwork but not narrative. Sargent imbibed these principles so well that he soon rivaled his mentor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sargent also studied the work of Diego Vel\u00e1zquez (1599\u20131660) and Frans Hals (1582\u20131666) closely. He learned much from the former\u2019s austere, striking compositions and lighting. He also developed something of the latter\u2019s sensitive characterization. But Sargent did not only look backward for inspiration. He also experimented with the techniques of his contemporaries the Impressionists and became friends with Claude Monet (1840\u20131926).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though he had bohemian inclinations, Sargent persistently strove for official recognition. This meant seeking acceptance and awards from the Paris Salon, an annual exhibition sponsored by the French government. The juries that accepted or rejected submissions tended to favor conservative, academic work. Sargent\u2019s portraits in the grand manner found favor with them. At the time, many avant-garde artists were rebelling against the Salon, but Sargent saw it as a means of gaining attention and commissions.<\/p>\n
Sargent\u2019s portrait of Carolus-Duran, which he submitted to the Salon (and which is not included in the current exhibition), elicited broad public acclaim. Novelist Henry James wrote that Sargent offered \u201cthe slightly \u2018uncanny\u2019 spectacle of a talent which on the very threshold of its career has nothing more to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fum\u00e9e d’ambre gris, 1880<\/p>\n
During his student years in Paris, Sargent spent his summers traveling. Of the early works in the exhibition, the paintings that he produced during his voyages are among the most interesting. With an eye toward gaining exposure, Sargent chose popular subjects such as seascapes, local people and \u201cexotic\u201d locations. Sometimes working\u00a0en\u00a0plein air\u00a0like the Impressionists, the artist demonstrated great skill in capturing the particularities of the landscape, architecture and light in Spain, Morocco and Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n