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Although Sargent is considered an American artist, he was trained in Paris and launched his career there. Initially he divided his exhibition work between genre scenes and portraiture, and though he painted genre subjects throughout his career, Sargent ultimately emerged as one of the most sought-after portraitists of his day. His early career—when he painted The Oyster Gatherers of Cancale—was filled with rigorous experimentation as he searched for the most effective ways to present his technical accomplishments. With this work, Sargent made his genre-painting debut in Paris. . . .
- Dorothy Moss, formerly Assistant Curator of American Art Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online
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Born in Italy to American parents, Sargent grew up in Europe. As a young art student in Paris, he trained with the esteemed portraitist Charles-Emile August Durand (Carolus-Duran), who belonged to a circle of the most celebrated writers, musicians, and painters of the city. Carolus-Duran introduced Sargent to possible patrons who might play a role in shaping his future through portrait commissions. Among Carolus-Duran’s many colorful friends was the noted playwright and poet Edouard Pailleron, whose wife, Marie Buloz Pailleron (1840–1913), was the daughter of a prominent Parisian publisher. Edouard Pailleron had commissioned Sargent to make a portrait of him in the wake of the young artist’s success at the 1879 Salon. During that summer he invited Sargent to paint Madame Pailleron’s portrait at her family’s estate in Savoy, at Ronjoux. Later Sargent was commissioned to paint their two children. Sargent’s portrait of Madame Pailleron exemplifies the contradictions that became a hallmark of his successful approach to portraiture. . . .
- Dorothy Moss, formerly Assistant Curator of American Art Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online
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, Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online :: View more Prints and Drawings
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John Singer Sargent was a prolific painter and draftsman throughout a long, industrious career. Although he is best known for his portraiture, Sargent’s oeuvre encompassed virtually every category of subject matter including allegory, history, still life, and scenes of daily life. During the first half of the painter’s career, his work was dominated by commissioned portraits of fashionable members of French and British society, but gradually a remarkable diversity of subjects emerged. He made copies of old masters, spontaneous on-site studies from nature, and large-scale life studies from studio models. The collections of the Corcoran Gallery encompass an impressive array of Sargent’s paintings and graphics that present both the familiar public face of the celebrated portraitist and the more private side of the artist in the studio. . . .
:: Eric Denker, Curator of Prints and Drawings Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online :: View more Prints and Drawings
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