The American Artist The most celebrated portrait painter of the Edwardian age. Born in Florence, his childhood was spent travelling from one European city or resort to another. He studied art in Paris and developed a realistic, traditional style, but he was also touched by the spirit of impressionism. His natural fluency and the brilliant accuracy of his portraits brought him outstanding success in America and England. When he became disillusioned with the demands of portraiture, Sargent concentrated on his mural and ceiling decorations for public buildings in Boston. He also travelled extensively, painting a vast number of landscape and figure subjects in oil and watercolour. An essentially shy and private man, he was charming and accomplished and, although he never married, was devoted to his family and circle of friends. John Singer Sargent paid his first visit to Broadway in September 1885 to recuperate from a bad head wound received while diving from a weir. He had been invited to go to this little Worcestershire village by his friend, the American painter Edwin Austin Abbey. Broadway, then little known and remote from the railway, was the home of a small colony of artists, many of whom were, like Sargent, expatriate Americans. It was here that Sargent painted what was later to become one of his best loved pictures, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. In 1905 Sargent was commissioned to paint the 9th Duke of Marlborough and his American wife at Blenheim Palace.
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The Broadway Group of Artists  |
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High Spirits
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In the Background  |
John Singer Sargent |
| This page last modified Monday, 24-Jul-2023 11:24:13 CEST |
