John Singer Sargent

“ Finally, from all these influences, Sargent has fashioned a method of his own.
“How shall one describe the method? It reveals the alertness and versatility of the American temperament. Nothing escapes his observation, up to a certain point at least; he is never tired of a fresh experiment; never repeats his compositions and schemes of colour, nor shows perfunctoriness or weariness of brush. In all his work there is a vivid meaningfulness ”

“ His art is neither Gallic nor British, it is American, and the chief reason why it is so different from most Anglo-Saxon art is because it is so superior, not because it is unAmerican. In any case the sense of motion remains Sargent’s personal conquest, possibly, even, his chief contribution to portraiture.
“In Sargent’s portraits women are in the act of starting from their chairs and men are on the very point of speaking. Here is a dancer whose yellow skirt still swirls in elastic convolutions; there stands a painter lunging at the canvas with sensitively poised brush. ”

“ Once in possession of the underlying facts, there should be no trouble in reading aright the salient, positive art, this art which by turns persuades and repels. Yet one cannot divine just why these high-bred women are so animated, or why the soldiers and statesmen are so emphatic, without first peering beneath the exterior. Though Sargent may himself remain dexterously on the surface, the spectator cannot. ”

“ With the entrance of Sargent into the arena of art cherished conventions disappear in sorry discomfiture. With a dignity and a technical mastery which compel both respect and enthusiasm he tramples upon tradition whenever tradition stands in his way. It is useless to scan these canvases in the hope of finding various qualities which for centuries have been deemed the touchstone of portraiture. Contemplation and reflection are by no means the rule. That adjustment of diverse elements which makes for balanced composition is often lacking. ”

“ All is restless, vivid, spontaneous. One and all these creatures vibrate with the nervous tension of the age. Other artists have given calm, or momentarily arrested motion. Sargent gives motion itself. With a technique facile as it is assertive this magician of the palette, this paganini of portraiture, has lured us into a new world, a world which we ourselves know well—perhaps too well—but a world hitherto undiscovered by painting.”
11 Art and Common Sense ”

“ Sargent has his grip upon the actual, and while in relation to the world and people about him he is almost a recluse, he has delighted his imagination with the seemings and shows of things and with their material significance. ”

“ Genius alone can account for the remarkable content of his work.
“Sargent’s life has been the result of peculiar circumstances—fortunate circumstances some may think; unfortunate others may hold. At least they have been instrumental in bringing forth an accomplished painter whose art no one can fail to admire. That his work may be admired understandingly it is quite necessary to comprehend the personality of the artist—to understand his education, his associations, his artistic and social environments. For if the man himself is cosmopolitan his art is not less so. ”

“ Sargent is not of the world in which he plays so conspicuous a part, but preserves an aloofness from it and studies it with the collectedness of an onlooker interested in the moving show and in its general trends of motive, but with an individual sympathy only occasionally elicited. ”

“ His parents, who were members of the Society of Friends, removed to Paris in 1822, leaving their sons to be educated in boarding-schools at Islington and Epping. In April 1830 Sargent was apprenticed to John D. Bassett, a draper, at Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Having served his time, in October 1834 he joined his father, a coachbuilder and brickmaker, at Paris. ”

“ He paints what he sees and has as little discernment of a character as of a mind. He gives, perhaps, without knowing their meaning, certain protrusions and recessions of the surface before him and lets the result tell what it may. In the production of the portrait accurate observation is more than half the battle. If a painter sees and knows his subject thoroughly, he will have little trouble in telling what he sees and knows; and to say of Sargent that he observes rightly and records truly is to state the case in a sentence.”
13
OIL PAINTINGS 1 Portrait of Mrs. ”

“ John S. Sargent, 1856- In this canvas, Sargent has shown the hushed pensiveness of mood, the perfection of sensitively modulated color of which his many-sided genius is capable, but which it has, in fact, rarely attained to such a degree as here. The subject of the painting is the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris at twilight, with the moon rising above the trees. In the distance may be seen the dome of the Pantheon. Various groups of figures lend the scene a measured animation. ”

“ With less than fifty picked men he rashly seized on Harper’s Ferry, held it for some days, and threw old Virginia into fits. He was seized and hung; and many good men approved the hanging; but in little more than a year afterwards, John Brown’s soul was “marching on” in the song of the Northern soldiery going South to battle against rebellion, until the very Charlestown where his gallows was set up was made to ring with the terrible refrain in his honor, the echoes of which are now audible in every State, from Maine to Louisiana. ”

“ Rubric know that I am master of my own actions," thought he to himself as he strode along; "and as to Mr. Grigson, I am much obliged to him for his hospitality, but I am a free agent, I hope, for all that."
"It's the way of the world," mused poor John Tincroft, bitterly; "let a fellow like me be under a cloud, and every favourite of fortune may give him a kick. What is it to the parson and the squire if I have chosen to take my walks in this direction? ”

“ He first spoke in a Friends' meeting at Clonmel on 23 Nov. 1851. His first publication, in 1853, was directed against the growing influence of the views of Joseph John Gurney [q. v.] The visit to England in that year of an American Friend, John Wilbur (1774–1856) , who had been disowned by the New England yearly meeting for his opposition to Gurney, led Sargent to identify himself with the advocates of the older type of quakerism. His frequent business journeys were made occasions of urging his views on Friends, both in this country and on the continent. ”

“ SARGENT, JOHN (1780–1833) , divine, was the eldest son of John Sargent, M.P. for Seaford in 1790. The latter, who died in 1831, published in 1784 ‘The Mine’ and other poems; he married at Woollavington, Sussex, on 21 Dec. 1778, Charlotte (d. 1841) , only daughter and heiress of Richard Bettsworth of Petworth, Sussex. The son John, born on 8 Oct. 1780, was educated at Eton, where he was a king's scholar, and in 1799 in the sixth form (Stapylton, Eton Lists, pp. 7–29) . In 1799 he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a fellowship and graduated B.A. 1804, M.A. 1807. ”

“ Rubric had succeeded in giving a new turn to John's thoughts. It had been pleasant to him to take those walks of which I have spoken, pleasant to worship at the shrine of Sarah's loveliness, without knowing that he worshipped. The old self-accusation of being a woman-hater was fading away; or rather a new light had been cast on that subject. Of course he knew that the maiden's loveliness was nothing to him. Was not Sarah engaged to her cousin? Was not he himself engaged to his Oriental studies? ”

“ These operations seemed to give some little relief, for a gentle sigh was heard; still the eyes remained half closed, and there was no further sign of returning animation.
"What shall I do next?" muttered John, in perplexity. "I have heard that cutting the stay laces—but that will never do. Ah! I have it," he said, as a sudden thought seized him, and in less time than it takes to tell, he had dived under the low archway into the cool retreat, and as speedily reappeared, bearing in his hand a half-tumbler of the precious hoard from Richard Grigson's locker. ”

“ In taking up portraiture as the field of his endeavor Sargent was perhaps wise as well as fortunate, for it requires the keen, cool observer, the man who can record the fact without romance, to make a good portrait-painter; and Sargent has proved himself an observer above all. He is not a poet in paint, nor does he indulge in sentiment, feeling, or emotion. He records the fact. If I apprehend him rightly, such theory of art as he possesses is founded in observation. ”

“ By this time the restorative had produced its effect, and the rustic beauty's colour had partially returned to her cheeks.
"I live at High Beech Farm," said she; "and it is time I was there. My father and mother went home long ago, and—oh, dear!"
She was once more on her feet, and anxiously looking out at the darkening landscape.
"It is a fine evening," said John; "and I'll—yes, if you will accept my help, I'll walk home with you. You are not well enough to be by yourself. You might have another fit on the road, you know. You must take my arm, and I'll see you safe, miss." ”

“ It was during the discussion of the third item in this catalogue that "mine host of the George" was invited to a confidential conference by the dapper lawyer's clerk, with whom he claimed a previous acquaintance, and who was not going to let the grass grow under their feet, he said.
The information obtained from the innkeeper was very limited. It consisted altogether in negatives. There was no such medical man in Saddlebrook as John Batts. Of this he was quite sure. ”

“ But it is an ill wind that blows no one any good; and you will be all the better for it—you'll see. You won't go with me to Westminster, I suppose?"
"I do not understand you, Mr. Roundhand," John reiterated; "only that you seem in high spirits," he added.
"And you are not so infected. Well, I'll go. You shall hear from me again soon."
"I am always pleased to see you, you know, Mr. Roundhand," said John.
"Ah! You'll have reason to say so this day week, perhaps. We shall see."
And so he departed, leaving Tincroft in a brown study. ”

“ Grigson to look upon him in any other light than as a lost man. And as he did not want to be either scorned or pitied, he would leave it to the squire to make any reapproaches. From this determination John was not to be moved, and he accordingly carried out his former programme. There was a hurried walk to High Beech, and a lengthened conference there in the character of an accepted lover, a return to the rectory to luncheon, a solitary tramp to the coaching town, in time for a night mail, and a night journey to Oxford. ”

“ It is the poor girl, Sarah Wilson, who is the innocent sufferer from my blunders."
"Well, well, put it that way if you like; but what I was going to say is that I, as far as I am concerned, think it a good thing for young Wilson—Walter—that the whole affair is ended."
"Do you really mean that, Mr. Grigson?" asked John in a troubled tone.
"Yes, I do. I have nothing to say against the girl particularly; but I don't approve of cousins marrying, in any case. And in this case, the young fellow may do better for himself, and can scarcely do worse, than by marrying that young woman." ”

“ At any rate, he went on: "I am a plain man, Mr. Tincroft, and have worked hard all my life—so has my dame—to get together what little there is to keep us going, and against a rainy day, maybe. We have got other boys, too, besides Walter, though one of them has not behaved as he ought to have done; he did me out of High Beech, George did—or his wife did, by putting him up to it, as my mistress says; but, any way, it was done by him. And then there's Elizabeth, and she not married, and not likely to be. You understand what I mean, Mr. Tincroft?"
John didn't understand ”

“ IV No one has encountered the beauty of woman's face more casually than Sargent, no one has made us realise more fully its significance as a fact in the world. After all we had thought perhaps we were partly deceived in this matter by the illusions of poets and love-sick painters, but approaching it without ecstasy, art has not been closer to this beauty than here. I am looking at a half-tone reproduction of a lady by Sargent, wondering whether in the history of English portrait painting an artist has approached as closely to the thoughts of his sitter. ”

“ All this time Sarah was sobbing out her griefs—whatever they were—and declaring (a very fertile theme of complaining with her) how badly she had been treated by Uncle Matthew and her aunt, and Elizabeth, in times gone by.
"So you were, my darling," John acquiesced, as he ceased blowing the fire with the breath of his mouth, in which operation the wood smoke had puffed out into his face end half-blinded him. "So you were," said he, drawing another chair to the fireside, and seating himself. "But why do you trouble about it? That's all past and gone, years ago. ”

“ If I have not misstated the case it would seem as though Sargent’s painting could be epitomized as nature plus an eye and a hand, external nature at that. He has never pretended or suggested that he delves beneath the surface, that he dreams or poetizes or evokes loveliness out of his inner consciousness and infuses it into his canvases. It is doubtful if he has even indulged to any great extent in that elevation of the technical problem by long reflection which Henry James refers to. ”

“ Tincroft. But I must tell you, having promised to be candid, that from what I know of Walter Wilson, your appearance here will probably so rouse his passion that you will not get even a hearing."
"I am sorry for that," said John.
"He will only think, and perhaps say, that being already tired of your new toy, you are only anxious to resign it to the old possessor."
"But you do not think so, Miss Burgess?" John asked, anxiously.
"No, I do not; but our judgments of each other so much depend on the points of view from which they are taken. ”