City and Country of Origin: Florence, Italy
Painting School: Baroque
Art Training: Carolus-Duran; Ecole des Beaux-Arts
Exhibitions: Paris Salon (1877) "Portrait of Fanny Watts;" Paris Salon (1878) "Oyster Gatherers of Cancale;" Paris Salon (1879) "Carolus Duran;" Paris Salon (1884) "Madame X;" Royal Academy (1887) "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose;" Knoedler Gallery, New York (1909, 1912), Watercolors; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, (1925), Retrospective; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (1925), Retrospective;
Awards:
Honorable Mention Paris Salon (1879) "Carolus Duran;" Second Class Medal Paris Salon (1881)
Major Works: "Madame X," "The Oyster Gatherers," "Ena and Betty, Daughters of Asther Wertheimer;" "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose;"
John Singer Sargent Biography: Sargent was born in Italy to American expatriate parents. He did not make his first visit to the United States until 1876. After he completed his studies he quickly received a moderate degree of success as a portrait painter in Paris. However, after the local outrage over his showing of the infamous Madame X in the 1884 Paris Salon Sargeant abandoned all hope of establishing a successful career as a portrait painter in that city. In 1886 he moved to London. He was a close friend of Claude Monet and for a few years he dabbled in Impressionism. It wasn't long before Sargent would give up his experiments with Impressionism and return to his true calling, that of a portrait artist. He soon became the most popular portrait painter in both England and the United States. He was an avid collector of the works of modernist painters including those by Monet, Manet and Whistler. By 1907 Sargent decided to give up painting portraits and he turned to landscapes. Although he painted some oils he became intoxicated by the lure of watercolors. After Sargent's death his reputation as an artist went into decline. His work was dismissed by art critics, intoxicated by new art movements like Cubism and Surrealism, as that of a slick society portrait artist. Afte the mid 1950s his work was resurrected and once again he is appreciated for his genius. the work of a slick commercial portrait painter.
Died: 1925
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