{"id":24279,"date":"2024-01-12T13:53:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T18:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=24279"},"modified":"2024-01-14T18:22:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-14T23:22:29","slug":"sargent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2024\/01\/12\/sargent\/","title":{"rendered":"In John Singer Sargent’s Dashing Gilded Age Portraits, Clothes Signal Prestige, Wealth, Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The thrill of \u201cFashioned by Sargent\u201d is 19th century society portrait painter John Singer Sargent\u2019s dashing skill with a brush. I always think of him as an incredibly sure-handed marksman\u2014each suave brushstroke always landing in exactly the right place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFashioned by Sargent,\u201d on view Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts from Oct. 8, 2023, to Jan. 15, 2024<\/a>, aims to demonstrate the role attire played in the portraits of Sargent (1856\u20131925). Organized by Erica E. Hirshler, a curator at the museum, for the Boston museum and Tate Britain, the exhibition pairs some 50 paintings by Sargent with more than a dozen dresses and accessories \u201creunited for the first time with Sargent\u2019s portraits of the sitters who once wore them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alice
Alice Laura Comyns-Carr designed Beetle Wing Dress’ for Lady Macbeth and John Singer Sargent, “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth,” 1889, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most spectacular pairing here is Sargent\u2019s 1889 painting of the red-haired \u201cEllen Terry as Lady Macbeth\u201d in a royal blue and green gown laced with gold. She raises her arms to place the corrupt crown upon her own head. Sargent had seen Terry perform the role in a December 1888 production at London\u2019s Lyceum Theatre, subsequently writing to Isabella Stewart Gardner that the actress \u201clooks magnificent in it, but she has not yet made up her mind to let me paint her in one of the dresses until she is quite convinced she is a success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d only previously seen the painting in reproduction and it always stuck me as a melodramatic outlier in his body of dashing, but generally sober portraits. The crowning pose was reportedly not one Terry acted in the play. It\u2019s as if Sargent was stretching to be as theatrical as the play. The painting becomes a showstopper when paired here with the original green \u201cBeetle Wing Dress\u201dand cloak designed by Alice Laura Comyns-Carr that Terry wore in the painting. It sparkles with crocheted green yarn and blue tinsel accented by the actual iridescent wings of jewel beetles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Costume
Costume for Carmen Dauset Moreno (Carmencita) and John Singer Sargent, “La Carmencita,” about 1890, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition also includes a gold silk satin skirt, \u201cbolero\u201d jacket and beaded shawl that 21-year-old Spanish music hall dancer Carmen Dauset Moreno, better known as La Carmencita, wore when Sargent painted her when she was on tour in New York around 1890. The show reunites Sargent\u2019s 1922 portrait of his friend Countess of Rocksavage (Sybil Sassoon) and the lace-trimmed black silk velvet and satin gown that Sargent ordered from the House of Worth for her to wear in the painting. There\u2019s a swatch of the red silk velvet gown that Mary Hammersley wore when Sargent painted her around 1890 and a kashmiri style shawl that Sargent used as a studio prop (which survived because Sargent gave it to Sassoon). The exhibition is filled out with clothing that evoke those Sargent painted though not the exact ones\u2014a fan, a top hat, a Turkish robe, satin shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we look at Sargent\u2019s work in the context of fashion, we discover his power over his sitters,\u201d exhibition organizers write. \u201cHe often told them what to wear, his choices revealing aspects of their personality, gender, or social position.\u201d Sargent usually paints little of people\u2019s surroundings, so clothes become a primary signifier of class, prestige, wealth, power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Elsie Palmer,” 1889-1890, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sargent\u2019s father was a doctor with roots in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia. His mother was an avid traveler. The painter was born in Florence, Italy, to his American parents, and came to speak English, Italian, French and German as they lived across Europe. He studied at Florence\u2019s Accademia di Belle Arti, Paris\u2019 Ecole des Beaux-Arts Paris, and in the independent atelier of Paris portrait painter Carolus-Duran, where he honed his realism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sargent was based in Paris from 1874 to 1886, and during that time traveled to paint in Greece, Italy and Spain. The sexiness of Sargent\u2019s 1883-84 portrait of \u201cMadame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau [Virginie Am\u00e9lie Avegno])\u201d prompted demands that it be removed when it was exhibited at Paris\u2019 Salon in 1884. Sargent portrayed Gautreau, the American wife of a Paris banker, like the figurehead at the prow of a ship, dressed in a satin and velvet dress with bare arms and a plunging neckline. \u201cIn its original state with one diamond strap falling from her shoulder, the painting was ridiculed, described as indecent and a sensational, vulgar attempt to garner attention,\u201d exhibition organizers write. \u201cA fashion faux pas became a potent symbol of upstart Americans who threatened to topple long-standing national hierarchies of fashion, society, and identity.\u201d The controversy was part of what prompted Sargent to contemplate leaving Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau),” 1883-1884, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sargent was friendly with the French Impressionist Claude Monet\u2014and painted him at work, probably at Giverny, France, around 1885. After Sargent moved to London in 1886, he experimented with his own version of Impressionism in the English countryside. Sargent is too preternaturally skilled a painter to ever be mediocre, but it can feel as if a moody method actor has wandered into the middle of a frothy musical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In London, \u201cSargent became the leading portrait painter of his generation, producing 900 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolors, and countless sketches,\u201d the museum writes. His sirs and ladies and lords of the British empire at high ebb (before the world wars and the unwinding of the colonial states) and the rising American Gilded Age appear life-sized, spotlit in dark rooms, looming down on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is epitomized here by Sargent\u2019s depiction of the launch of Britain\u2019s Edwardian age. Sargent had turned down an invitation to paint the coronation of Britain\u2019s King Edward VII in 1902, but he reenacted it for his 1904 portrait of \u201cCharles Stewart, Sixth Marquess of Londonderry, Carrying the Great Sword of State at the Coronation of Edward VII, August 1902, and Mr. W. C. Beaumont, His Page on That Occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Singer Sargent, “John D. Rockefeller,” 1889-1917, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s his 1917 portrait of the silver-haired American oil oligarch John D. Rockefeller. Sargent had given up his portrait practice by then, but reluctantly agreed to the commission and donated his proceeds to the wartime British Red Cross. Sargent depicted Rockefeller dressed in a serge coat and tan pants, seated upon Windsor chair\u2014in Sargent\u2019s eyes, an \u201cold Gentleman who looks like a mediaeval saint.\u201d To me, it feels like Sargent is working to convince us that Rockefeller is a model of Yankee sobriety and restraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sargent paints these lifestyles of the rich and famous with seemingly effortless panache\u2014which has always made him both widely beloved and somewhat suspected of perhaps not being deep enough. He brings faces into sharp focus, but their outfits and surroundings have a softer-focus blur. This was a traditional approach to portraiture\u2014and continues to be a primary approach of today\u2019s society photographers. It gives Sargent room to let loose. Details like clothing that can feel sharp, upon closer inspection reveal themselves to be bravura daubs precisely placed to capture the drama of light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Detail
Detail of John Singer Sargent, “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth,” 1889, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Near the end of the exhibition hangs Sargent\u2019s 1892 portrait of \u201cLady Agnew of Lochnaw (Gertrude Vernon).\u201d She was in her London home Recovering from severe influenza, which perhaps is partly responsible for the painting\u2019s languid mood. She wears a white silk confection with sheer organza sleeves and a lilac sash, as she leans into the side of the chair, with her arm dangling casually over the side. There\u2019s something in the tension between the formal gown and her casual posture. Her blue-green eyes watch us with a serious, knowing gaze. Her red lips bend into maybe the faint beginning of a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Lady Agnew of Lochnaw,” 1892, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by\u00a0contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2024 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sidney
Sidney Robert Carter, “John Singer Sargent,” about 1910, photograph, gelatin silver print. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Templeman Coolidge, “John Singer Sargent painting Mrs. Fiske Warrent (Gretched Osgood) and her daughter Rachel in the Gothic Room,” 1903, platinum print. (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel,” 1903, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lady
Lady Sassoon’s satin and lace Opera Cloak and John Singer Sargent, “Lady Sassoon,” 1907, oil on canvas. In “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Lady Sassoon,” 1907, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Dr. Pozzi at Home,” 1881, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Dr. Pozzi at Home,” 1881, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Fashioned
“Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Fancy
Fancy Dress Costume and John Singer Sargent, “Countess of Rocksavage,” 1922, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “La Carmencita,” c. 1890, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Elsie Palmer,” 1889-1890, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"House
House of Worth pearl-embroidered white bengaline dress in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Nonchaloir (Repose),” 1911, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kashmiri
Kashmiri shawl, c. 1830., in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Fashioned
“Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Silk
Silk velvet evening dress and John Singer Sargent, “Mrs. Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy),” 1887, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Mrs. Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy),” 1887, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Fashioned
“Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Fashioned
“Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth,” 1889, oil on canvas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Alice
Alice Laura Comyns-Carr designed Beetle Wing Dress’ for Lady Macbeth and John Singer Sargent, “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth,” 1889, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"'Beetle
‘Beetle Wing Dress’ for Lady Macbeth in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Fashioned
“Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"John
John Singer Sargent, “Mrs. Hugh Hammersley,” 1892, oil on canvas, in “Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\""Fashioned
“Fashioned by Sargent” at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2023 to 2024. (Photograph \u00a9 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thrill of \u201cFashioned by Sargent\u201d is 19th century society portrait painter John Singer Sargent\u2019s dashing skill with a brush. I always think of him as an incredibly sure-handed marksman\u2014each suave brushstroke always landing in exactly the right place. \u201cFashioned by Sargent,\u201d on view Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts from Oct. 8, 2023, to Jan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[37,1222,1221,216],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24279"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24386,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24279\/revisions\/24386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}