John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent 
 Capricorn Pisces Sagittarius Libra
(January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925)

Carnation Lily Lily Rose, 1885-6

John Singer Sargent was the most successful portrait painter of his era,
as well as a gifted landscape painter and watercolorist and was considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury.
Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to American parents.
Although based in Paris, Sargent's parents moved regularly with the seasons to the sea and the mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. (dream life!)

El Jaleo (Detail), 1882

 

Sargent grew up to be a highly literate and cosmopolitan young man, accomplished in art, music, and literature. (How could he not with that upbringing!)
He was fluent in French, Italian, and German.
From the beginning his work was characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush.

John Singer Sargent in his studio with Portrait of Madame X, ca. 1885

 Sargent spent much time painting outdoors in the English countryside when not in his studio.
In later life Sargent devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. He lived most of his life in Europe.

Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911

 
Sargent studied in Italy and Germany, and then in Paris under Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran whose influence would be pivotal, from 1874-1878.
Carolus-Duran's atelier was progressive, dispensing with the traditional academic approach which required careful drawing and underpainting, in favor of the alla prima method of working directly on the canvas with a loaded brush, derived from Diego Velázquez. 

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1893


  In a time when the art world focused, in turn, on Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism, Sargent practiced his own form of Realism, which made brilliant references to Velázquez, Van Dyck, and Gainsborough.
His seemingly effortless facility for paraphrasing the masters in a contemporary fashion led to a stream of commissioned portraits of remarkable virtuosity and earned Sargent the moniker,
"the Van Dyck of our times".

Winifred, Duchess of Portland, 1902

 
Sargent was a lifelong bachelor who surrounded himself with family and friends and died in England on April 14, 1925 of heart disease.

-wiki & johnsingersargent.org