11/6/2022 0 Comments Charcoal portraits![]() ![]() 1904, charcoal, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Gift of James O. John Singer Sargent, Mary Smyth Hunter, ca. Many works highlight fabulous hats, dramatic shawls, and sweeping hairstyles, while the rest of the body and clothing dissolve into the background. Faces – the most important part of any portrait – are always tightly rendered. Sargent’s charcoal portraits have the same delicate balance of detail and simplification that’s so compelling in his oil paintings. These light and dark backgrounds produce very different effects, and a few darkly-rendered figures on dark backgrounds are particularly spectacular. Most show the sitter’s head and shoulders against a plain background of either bare white paper or dark charcoal. They’re smaller than his oil portraits, but they’re certainly not tiny sketches. Sargent’s charcoal portraits are generously sized. By permission of the Provost and Fellows of King’s College, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. John Singer Sargent, Gertrude Kingston, ca. I suspect that every visitor to this exhibition had no trouble coming up with a few favorites. Each Sargent portrait is unique, though impossible to mistake for the work of any other artist. My favorite was a lively portrait of composer Ethel Smyth with her mouth open in mid-song. However, I most enjoyed some of the unfamiliar sitters. The portrait of American actress Ethel Barrymore was an audience favorite. Some portraits, like those of Winston Churchill, Henry James, and William Butler Yeats, were immediately recognizable by name or by face. John Singer Sargent, Robert Henry Benson, 1912, charcoal. Most belonged to Sargent’s large social circle, and many were his friends. Sitters include aristocrats, artists, writers, performers, politicians, and social luminaries. ![]() They depict men and women from late teens or early 20s through old age. The show included about 50 works from public and private collections in England and America. John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal was curated by Sargent expert Richard Ormond, who is also the artist’s grand-nephew. John Singer Sargent, Sybil Sassoon, 1912, charcoal, private collection. Many were commissions, while others were done as gifts to the sitters. Sargent made over 750 charcoal portraits in his career. Charcoal portraits full#They are smaller and simpler than oil portraits, but still relatively large and full of Sargent’s characteristic vitality. Such drawings were quicker and easier to create one took only about three hours to complete instead of the thirteen or more hours necessary for an oil portrait. So, Sargent came up with a solution to satisfy everyone – charcoal portrait drawings. Sargent had become a sought-after portrait painter, and potential customers wouldn’t take no for an answer. However, in 1907, he decided that he’d had enough of the demanding job of painting the rich and famous, and he abruptly stopped taking portrait commissions. Oil portraits made Sargent’s career, and he’s still famous for them today. ![]() He also painted many beautiful watercolors. Photography by Christopher Calnan.Īrt lovers know Italian-born American artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) for his gorgeous, large-scale portraits of American and European elites such as Madame X, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, and Lady Agnew of Locknaw. John Singer Sargent, Lady Diana Manners, 1914, private collection. It was a terrific show that made me admire Sargent even more than I did before. It was the first-ever museum exhibition to focus exclusively on Sargent’s charcoal portrait drawings. John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal opened at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York in October 2019. ![]()
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