By: Germain Uitz

The American artist John Singer Sargent, he was born January 12, 1856 and lived until April 14, 1925. In his time he was known for his portraits, and was known as the best portrait painter at the time. He had a great career as an artist; he created around 900 oil paintings and over 2,000 watercolor paintings. He also had numerous sketches and charcoal drawings. The way he came to be this artist is pretty interesting.

John tried going to study at the academy of Florence but failed; he then returned to Paris and began his art studies with Carlous Duran. Carlous Duran was a young French portrait artist, he was known for his newer teaching methods and bold technique, his influence was pivotal to Sargent during 1874 to 1878. During 1874 he passed the exam required to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, the best art school in France. He took drawing classes but he spent a lot of time drawing in museums and painting in a studio. He also took classes from Leon Bonnat, he was the star student in short order.

His early enthusiasm and Carlous Duran’s expertise finally influenced him to begin painting portraits. The best way to promote an art career was to begin portrait drawing and to get exhibited in the Salon, his first major portrait was of his friend Fanny Watts in 1877, and it was also his first Salon admission. He then began his career as an artist. When he was 23 in 1879 he painted his teacher Carlous Duran, the effort met the public’s approval and showed the way his later work would go.  Henry James wrote that Sargent offered "the slightly 'uncanny' spectacle of a talent which on the very threshold of its career has nothing more to learn." His early work was both great and skillful.

Sargent later on visited Spain, where he studied paintings of Velazquez with a passion learning the master’s technique, which then helped him to get ideas for future paintings. The trip to Spain also re-awakened his old talent for music which was as good as his skills for painting, music stayed in his life as seen while he was a skillful accompanist of professional musicians. When he returned from his trip he quickly received several portrait commissions, his career launched, then for 25 years he painted with workman like steadiness. His great skill made him standout among new portraitists, and his fame quickly spread.

He was bachelor through all his life and surrounded himself by friends and family, among some of them were also other well known artists. While not much is known about his personal life, it has been said that his sex life was notorious in Paris and Venice and was scandalous. Many believe he had a homosexual life style it is not certain, his male nudes reveal complex and well considered artistic sensibilities.

The look into his life is rather interesting and unexpected, but is truly amazing. Sargent was a very skilled and a great American painter. His technique in watercolor is literally outstanding his work resembles the best American watercolor painter Winslow Homor.

John Singer Sargent is well known for his skill with watercolors, during his career he painted more than 2,000 watercolor paintings. It was said that escaping the pressures of the portrait studio, he often painted from morning until night. Some of his watercolors sometimes so vivid a person noted "Everything is given with the intensity of a dream." In his later works it senses Sargent was painting most purely for himself; this watercolors executed joyfulness, and a fluidness within the art work. He also did rapid charcoal portraits which he called “Mugs”, 46 of them during 1890-1916, were exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1916. All of his murals can be found around the Boston/Cambridge area as well.

Sargent later died in April 14, 1925 in England due to heart disease, he was buried in Brookwood Cemetery. In 1925 Boston, exhibitions of Sargent’s work were held and also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1926 the same thing happened in the Royal Academy, and Tate Gallery in London. The Grand Central Art Galleries also organized a after his death exhibition in 1928 of previously unseen sketches and drawings from his career.

This is the way this great artist came to be, even though we don’t know much about his life we see its adventures through his paintings. John Singer Sargent is one of the greatest American painters known and his artworks have influenced a lot of people. He was a great skillful person who showed great technique in every painting. That’s how we know him and what we know about his wonderful skilled life. John Singer Sargent was one of the best painters known in his generation and so forth to ours.

Some of the things I have learned about this artist are that I never would’ve guessed he was an American artist because they say he spoke perfect French, and many artists came out of a European descent. He also has very great technique and craftsmanship in all his artwork, it kind of shocked me how well he caught the person and how well he could paint someone. I also didn’t know he was a skilled musician, I bet many people never would’ve guessed or even knew he had a great talent as a musician. I also thought he would have a wife or some significant other but he didn’t. These are some of the things that kind of shocked me about John Singer Sargent.

I even learned that artists can fail but still get back up and become great as he did when he failed at the academy of Florence. He also studied and built himself up, because he was determined he studied other artists to become one of the best. I usually always thought an artist would go to some school and make his own great artwork by doing something different and being unique, but Sargent didn’t he learned from various artists and put them all together in a mix of talent. He was a smart individual to be able to put all those techniques and ways of painting into one while still holding his own unique qualities in his paintings. All the skill he had and how multi-talented he was must have helped him tremendously as an artist and being able

to get recognized. He was a strong willed determined artist, who deserves to be known as one of the best due to the fact of how well his work came to be.

His technique and utter skill for watercolor must have come from the influences of Diego Velasquez, who he also resembled in his artwork. John Singer Sargent also had his own form of Realism, which mad terrific references to Velasquez, Van Dyck. He paraphrased the master’s fashion so simply that he earned the title Sargent the moniker, “the Van Dyck of our times.” His artwork was influenced pretty heavily by Velasquez.

Some of his artwork has sold for a ridiculous amount of money over the years up to millions! In 2004 for 8.8 million dollars the Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson and his Wife was sold to the Las Vegas casino mogul Steven Wynn, it was to be installed in his newest casino, Wynn Las Vegas. In December 2004, the painting Group with Parasols sold for 23.5 million dollars, double the Sotheby’s estimate of 12 million. The last price a Sargent painting went for was 11 million. I can’t believe how much a painting is worth to some people, that’s insane how much people are willing to spend.

Through this report of John Singer Sargent one of the best American painters, I’ve learned a lot about how he became the person we know today. He had a great skill and technique, especially determination to be one of the best the world has come to know. I learned that in watercolor you could flow freely and there are many different types of techniques you could learn, to be great in painting. Sargent has taught me a lot about trying and not giving up and I also learned a lot about his life and how he came to be one of the best artists known. Through this report these are some of the things I’ve learned and compared to myself.

Portait of Carlous Duran

On the Steps of the Salut