John Singer Sargent (Junuary 12, 1856—April 14, 1925) was born in Florence, Italy, but he was an American, for his parents were American. Before his birth, his father was en eye surgeon from 1844 to 1854. After his elder sister died at the age of two, his mother suffered a breakdown, so that his parents decided to go abroad to recover. They remained nomadic expatriates for the rest of their lies. Een though based in Paris, his parents moved regularly with the seasons to the sea and the mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzarland. While Sargent’s mother was pregnant, they stopped in Florence because of a cholera epidemic, it was why Sargent born there. A year later, his younger sister was born, his father reluctantly resigned his post in Philadelphia ad accepted to remain abroad. They generally avoided society and other Americans except for friends in the art world.
Young Sargent was a rambunctious child, he was more interested in outdoor activities than his studies. As a patient teacher of basic subjects, his father wrote, “He is quite a close obserer of animateed nature”. His mother was convinced that traveling around Europe and visiting museums and churches, would give young Sargent a satisfactory education. His mother gave him sketchbooks and encouraged drawing excursions. At about thirteen, his mother reported that Sargent “sketches quite nicely and 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”. 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 a young French portrait artist, who had a meteoric rise and was noted for his bold technique and modern teaching methods, and his influence would be pivotal to the portrait painter Sargent during the period from 1874 to 1878.
In early 1880s, the portrait painter Sargent regularly exhibited portraits at the Salon, and these were mostly full-length portrayal of women, his best portraits reveal the individuality and personality of the sitters. In many of his early portraits, Sargent confidently tries different approaches with each new challenge. His most controversial work, Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pirre Gautreau), is now considered one of his best works, and was the artist’s personal faovrite, he stated in 1915, “I suppose it is the best thing I have done”. During the portrait painter Sargent’s long career, he also painted more than 200 watercolors, roving from the English coutryside to Venice to the Tyrol, Conful, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida. Each destination offered pictorial stimulation and treasure. Hundreds of Sargent’s watercolors of Venice are especially notable, many done from the perspective of a gondola. His colors were sometimes extremely vivid and as one reviewers noted, “Everything is given with the intensity of a dream”. With Sargent’s watercolors, he was able to indulge his earliest artist inclinations for nature, architecture, exotic people, and noble mountain landscapes.
In the portrait painter Sargent’s portraits, we can see a more dilute pigment draw with long wtrokes in many places. He painted head portrait changed from soft to sharp treated in subtle. In addition, he also often done scroping color changes, similar to Whistle. Though it was not so popular as before since 20th century, there are many admirers eager to keep some of his masterpieces. No matter Sargent’s watercolors or his sketches, just contact us if you need, our artists are able to produce numerous painting reproductions of Sargent, you are supposed to search for some you like on our site and we will do our best to service for you !