John Singer Sargent Paintings You Probably Missed

John Center Sargent is well known for his grand society portraits in oil, but to me, it's in his small-scale watercolor paintings where he really shows us who he is as an artist. Let's look at this commission of Louise Pomeroy. She was a prominent society hostess in Boston. Sargent's commissioned portraits are extraordinary. I got to see them in person at the MFA in Boston in the 90s. But the thing is, when I look at this portrait compared to this watercolor of Isabella Stewart Gardner, you start to look at the commissioned portrait a little bit differently. And you have to remember that Sargent was hugely in demand for these society portraits. I have to imagine that he just had to do so many that he probably had to figure out some strategy in his painting to make sure that the portraits didn't take too long. That's a guess. I don't have any historical facts to back that up. But as somebody who's done portrait paintings before, I can understand why you might want to get them done as quickly as possible. The clients are a nightmare. My theory looking at this painting is that because he made such sumptuous faces that were beautiful and mesmerizing, he was able to get away with a lot of things in the rest of the painting. He knew how to make necklaces sparkle like the one that you see here. Even the hairpin that she's wearing has that little bit of bling. But if we take away the face and the jewelry, there's not a lot left over. I'm sorry, but I think that he phoned in that background. She's got this really fancy evening gown, and I think he did capture the velvety surface of it. But I've seen him paint dresses before, like the one in Lady Agnew and this one. Not quite up to snuff when I make that comparison. But the thing is, he totally got away with it. Chances are, most people who are looking at this portrait are totally mesmerized by the facial expression. When you do a face that's that good, you can get away with some of that other stuff. I'm not saying that every part of the painting has to be resolved to the same degree of detail as the eyes necessarily, but he's a painter who really knew how to direct your focus. By comparison, this delicate watercolor portrait that Sargent did of Isabella Stewart Gardner is everything that a society portrait is not. Isabella Stewart Gardner was his friend for over 40 years. Now consider that relationship compared to a portrait client. This is such an incredibly delicate and fragile depiction of Isabella Stewart Gardner, and it captures this moment after she had had this debilitating stroke, and he shows us that fragility that she has at this point in her life. This was the last portrait painted of her before her death. Think about all of those society portraits and the flashy colors that he puts into the outfits, which certainly they wore those on purpose for their portrait commission, but in this watercolor of Gardner, it's almost like the color has been totally drained from her presence, and yet if you look at the watercolor work in her clothing, there are the most subtle shifts of white. He made what could be a fairly boring white piece of clothing into something that felt incredibly luminous. Gardner is painted with really low contrast, and most of his other society portraits, they rely tremendously on that dramatic contrast. Here, she's this delicate presence, and that doesn't happen with his large-scale portrait commissions. Let's compare these portraits of the Atchison sisters against these two watercolor paintings of gourds and pomegranates. This is a portrait that was commissioned by Louise, who was the Duchess of Devonshire, more high society people here, but I don't want to talk about the portraits here, but actually what interests me about this painting compared to the watercolors is the fruit in the background. Now, of course, the oranges are not supposed to be the main point of this painting, but he did add them as a decorative element that one of the figures is interacting with, and it does add a nice splash of color within all of the other subtle grays. But look at those oranges. They don't really look that good. They look like these orange spheres. You don't have any real expression of texture. They don't have any surface texture to them. The lighting that's in the background is pretty dim. You don't really get a great sense of the outdoor light you would be having here. But then look at these luscious pomegranates. They're just tumbling out of the skin with this just sumptuous quality to them. This is one of those paintings, I mean, I feel like I can taste the pomegranates looking at the painting. And then look at how chaotic the brushwork is. There's a million brushstrokes in this piece. This is a much smaller painting than the oil portraits, but there's this absolute unbridled sense of energy in the brushwork. You can really see the luminosity, feeling the light that's coming forward. And then look at the luminosity of the light. It's just this majestic sense of light which is permeating every single part of the painting. Those oranges in the other portrait, they practically look like tennis balls by comparison. This watercolor painting and also the pomegranate painting were painted in Spain, plain air. These gourds are so voluptuous. And then combine that with these delicate green washes to show the shadow. This is 100% pure Now we have this commission of the Wyndham sisters. They were the daughters of Percy Wyndham, who was a very wealthy British politician. Also, I cannot resist, look at these thumbnails. Anyone who tells me that thumbnails don't matter, Sargent thought they did. And then to see how those thumbnails are translated into this gigantic oil painting, that's where it all began is a couple of scribbles. I confess that I'm not a fan of the clothing here. It looks really blobby in a bunch of places. But again, here he is with absolutely gorgeous faces, sparkly jewelry, and he can get away with the blobby dresses. And I know some people are going to argue, oh, but those dresses are so beautiful. They're okay. But if you look at this painting of Lady Agnew, I'm sorry Wyndham sisters, he worked harder on her drapery, or at least it looks like he did. Let's compare the Wyndham sisters portrait with this small scale watercolor painting of his nieces who were posing for him in the Italian Alps plein air. This is a watercolor that I really don't see that often. And I did get to see it in person when it came to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It's a very small painting compared to his gigantic oil paintings. This painting is the complete opposite of what a portrait commission is usually expected to be. You can barely see her face. In fact, it would take a minute if you weren't looking for it to find the nose and the mouth emerging from the bottom of the clothing. If you think about portraits and how much people put so much emphasis on the eyes in the painting, this one doesn't even have eyes being shown. What Sargent's doing here is he's creating a feeling of mystery that you don't really know who she is, and also that she's not aware that you are in the scene. In the Wyndham sisters portrait, there is one figure in the center who's making direct eye contact with you as a viewer. This painting is such a different interaction between the viewer and the figure. And also, if you look at the clothing, it's a little bit hard to decipher. It's not super clear-cut exactly where the shoulders are. Some of the pattern in the clothing starts to take over and become a lot more abstract. There's super dramatic foreshortening, which also minimizes the scale of her head. I get that artists have specific artworks that they're extremely well known for that get a lot of visibility, but often it's in these smaller, more personal pieces where I really feel like the artist is being who they are as opposed to who they are expected to be. Poor John Singer Sargent painting all of the society portraits. I think I would lose my mind because the clients are so incredibly demanding, and I look at the watercolors and he just looked so free and engaged.