Amazon.co.uk Review
John Singer Sargent's reputation has been in need of reclamation ever since fellow painter Walter Sickert described his paintings as "wriggle and chiffon", implying that they lacked substance. The publication of this marvellous book--it accompanies 1998's major retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London--does just that as it magnificently illustrates that Sargent was so much more than a rather shallow portraitist of rich people. The book, of course, includes his portraits, but it also takes us through his early landscapes, exhibits at the Paris Salons in the 1880s, as well as late period murals, water colours and landscapes.
Richard Ormond--Sargent's great-nephew--provides a comprehensive biographical essay and an assessment of his development as an artist with Elaine Kilmurray providing most of the commentary on the individual paintings. The Sargent that emerges is not only technically brilliant, but also thoughtful and astute. Behind the wealth, one sees the insecurities and family tensions of his portrait subjects. His landscapes are lush and sensual and his vast murals for the Boston Library and Museum--he worked on them for 35 years from 1890 until his death in 1925--a triumph of scope and ingenuity. This book is a fine tribute to a wonderful artist. --Nick Wroe
Synopsis
Examines the career of John Singer Sargent, not only focusing upon his achievements as a master portraitist, but also as a painter of landscapes, figures, watercolours and murals. He was a genuinely international figure, forging an early reputation in Paris, and later establishing himself as a portraitist in England and America. He travelled extensively in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, doing research for his Boston mural projects and painting a dazzling range of landscapes and figure studies in oil and watercolour. His huge diversity of output is surveyed and evaluated in this exhibition catalogue, which accompanies the first major retrospective of Sargent's career since the memorial exhibitions that followed his death. Two hundred works are reproduced with substantial entries and each section has a short introduction. Three essays examine Sargent's development as an artist, his relationship with his patrons, and his involvement, over 30 years, with painting murals.
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