John Singer Sargent (12 January 1856-4 April 1925)

john singer sargent self portrait

name:                  john singer sergeant
birth place:         Florence Italy
birth date:          12 January 1856
zodiac sign:        Capricorn
death place:        London England
death date:         14 April 1925
languages:          English, French, Italian, German

Biography of John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent ( 12 January, 1856 – 14 April, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury.He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

Portrait of Carolus-Duran, 1879 by John Singer Sargent

He was born in Florence to American parents, and trained in Paris before moving to London, living most of his life in Europe. He enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter, although not without controversy and some critical reservation; an early submission to the Paris Salon, his Portrait of Madame X, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter, but instead resulted in scandal. From the beginning his work is characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work, and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. Art historians generally ignored "society" artists such as Sargent until the late 20th century.

Teresa Gosse by John Singer Sargent 1885

Dorothy Barnard by John Singer Sargent 1885

girl with a sickle by John Singer Sargent 1885

The unrivaled recorder of male power and female beauty in a day that, like ours, paid excessive court to both."

- ​Robert Hughes

Subjects of John Singer Sargent: society ladies

Madame X (or Madame Pierre Gautreau) by John Singer Sargent 1884

Judith Gautier by John Singer Sargent 1885

Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth by John Singer Sargent 1889

Subjects of John Singer Sargent: Artists

Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife by John Singer Sargent 1885

Claude painting by the edge of a wood by John Singer Sargent 1885