| THE
WATERCOLORS OF JOHN SINGER SARGENT
This lecture, illustrated with
approximately 80 slides, will overview the career of artist John Singer Sargent (1856 -
1925) and will focus on his watercolors painted between 1900 and 1922.
John Singer Sargent was most famous during
his lifetime as a portrait painter of high society. During his career he painted nearly
600 formal portraits in oil, but he also painted approximately 1600 watercolors and over
600 landscape and genre paintings in oil. From 1900 until his death in 1925, Sargent
traveled extensively to escape the pressures of his portrait work. On these trips, often
lasting months, he would paint for his own pleasure in both oil and watercolor. But more
and more watercolor became his primary medium as it seemed to fill his need for unhampered
expression. Today many artists and critics consider his watercolors his greatest
achievement. He is ranked with Winslow Homer (1836 - 1910) as one of America’s
greatest painters in watercolor. His first biographer, Evan Charteris, wrote "to live
with Sargent’s watercolors is to live with sunshine captured and held".
My objective in this lecture is to share my
pleasure in Sargent’s light filled watercolors and point out the painting techniques
he used. My knowledge is based on many years of studying his work and personal observation
of the original paintings. The lecture starts with slides of some of Sargent’s
portraits and genre paintings done in oil accompanied by a brief commentary on his life
and career that will put his watercolors in context. This is followed by photos of Sargent
working on location and then 73 slides of his watercolors presented in chronological order
with a commentary on each painting. The presentation time is approximately one hour and
twenty minutes. |
