Richard Ormond

A comprehensive catalogue of Sargent’s charcoal portraits, capturing high society, professions, and the arts in an era of profound transformation In comparison with his portraits in oil, John Singer Sargent’s charcoal portraits are relatively little known. In this authoritative new volume, Richard Ormond documents the nearly 700 drawings that make up this distinct strand of Sargent’s oeuvre. These portraits capture the essence of British and American high society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, portraying an elite clientele that includes aristocracy, royalty, politicians, artists, writers, actors, financiers, and philanthropists. Among Sargent’s subjects are such prominent figures as the Astors, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Du Ponts, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Ethel Barrymore, W. B. Yeats, and Winston Churchill. Though renowned for his paintings of women, these charcoal portraits also reveal Sargent’s interest in depicting athletes across a variety of sports, from cricket and fencing to football and polo. This shift in subject matter from prewar to postwar, along with a sparser style characteristic of his charcoal work, casts new light on Sargent’s depictions of the period’s social landscape. Surviving letters between Sargent and his patrons, reminiscences recorded in contemporary diaries, and David McKibbin’s extensive correspondence with sitters, both document the portraits and provide a vivid and human picture of the artist at work. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

The cumulative index to John Singer Sargent: The Complete Paintings comprises two indexes covering the nine volumes of the complete catalogue raisonné: a comprehensive general index and an index of the titles of all the works by Sargent that have been referenced in the catalogue project.

For the first time, explore John Singer Sargent’s fascination with Spain as seen in stunning landscapes, architectural views, figure studies, and scenes of everyday life American artist John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) experienced Spain, including the picturesque island of Majorca, as a source of rejuvenation and inspiration. Sargent and Spain features scores of the artist’s dazzling watercolors, oil paintings, and drawings, from landscapes and seascapes to architectural studies, scenes of everyday life, and sympathetic portraits of the Roma and other local people he encountered. Immersing himself in the country’s rich culture, he studied Spanish masters old and new, lavishing particular attention on works by Diego Velázquez in the Prado. He rendered the distinctive architecture of the Alhambra as well as other palaces and churches, and he captured lively scenes of ports and villages. Intrigued by Spanish dance and music, Sargent created dynamic views of flamenco and the famous dancer La Carmencita. A map and an illustrated chronology document the artist’s seven trips to and travels through Spain. This handsome book showcases, for the first time, Sargent’s captivation with Spain and the remarkable works of art now associated with it. Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington Exhibition Schedule: National Gallery of Art, Washington (October 2, 2022–January 2, 2023) Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor (February 11–May 14, 2023)

Sargent's portraits in charcoal constitute a gallery of the great and the good and the talented, scarcely less remarkable in its range of personalities than that earlier gallery of painted portraits. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was one of the greatest portrait artists of his time. While he is best known for his powerful paintings, he largely ceased painting portraits in 1907 and turned instead to charcoal drawings to satisfy portrait commissions. These drawn portraits represent a substantial, yet often overlooked, part of his practice, and they demonstrate the same sense of immediacy, psychological sensitivity, and mastery of chiaroscuro that animate Sargent's sitters on canvas. This volume presents over sixty superb portrait drawings, showcasing sitters famous for their roles in politics, society, and the arts. It also explores the friendships and the networks of patronage that underpinned Sargent's practice as a portrait draftsman in Edwardian Britain and Progressive Era America. AUTHOR: Richard Ormond is an outstanding Sargent scholar, as well as well as being the the artist's grand-nephew. He was previously director of the National Maritime Museum. He has worked on numerous publications, including, with Elaine Kilmurray, the nine volume Sargent catalogue raisonne, and has co-curated exhibitions on Sargent's work in London, Washington D.C., Boston, Ferrara and Los Angeles. 100 colour illustrations

John Singer Sargent's work in watercolor was unorthodox. He overturned traditional contemporary compositional standards and avoided the obviously picturesque, developing an audacious and sophisticated technique, an expression of his personal modern aesthetic. He ignored the celebrated panoramas of Venice and the traditional description of landscape; instead his watercolors challenged the viewer with unconventional angles, confrontational poses and geometric forms. This engaging volume takes a fresh look at Sargent's idiosyncratic view of the world through some of his most beguiling watercolors. These works are deeply personal and immensely appealing.

This sensitive and compelling biography sheds new light on John Singer Sargent’s art through an intimate history of his family. Karen Corsano and Daniel Williman focus especially on his niece and muse, Rose-Marie Ormond, telling her story for the first time. In a score of paintings created between 1906 and 1912, John Singer Sargent documented the idyllic teenage summers of Rose-Marie and his own deepening affection for her serene beauty and good-hearted, candid charm. Rose-Marie married Robert, the only son of André Michel, the foremost art historian of his day, who had known Sargent and reviewed his paintings in the Paris Salons of the 1880s. Robert was a promising historian as well, until the Great War claimed him first as an infantry sergeant, then a victim, in 1914. His widow Rose-Marie served as a nurse in a rehabilitation hospital for blinded French soldiers until she too was killed, crushed under a bombed church vault, in 1918. Sargent expressed his grief, as he expressed all his emotions, on canvas: He painted ruined French churches and, in Gassed, blinded soldiers; he made his last murals for the Boston Public Library a cryptic memorial to Rose-Marie and her beloved Robert. Braiding together the lives and families of Rose-Marie, Robert, and John Sargent, the book spans their many worlds—Paris, the Alps, London, the Soissons front, and Boston. Drawing on a rich trove of letters, diaries, and journals, this beautifully illustrated history brings Sargent and his times to vivid life.

The final volume in a full survey of the work of John Singer Sargent, covering his late watercolors, designs for the Boston murals, and work as an official War Artist The last in a series of books devoted to the work of John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), this volume covers the figure and landscape works that Sargent produced between 1914 and 1925. The story begins with the artist painting with friends on vacation in Austria in the summer of 1914, unaware that war was about to be declared. The following year, he began working in London on his ideas for the murals at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, before spending two years in Boston and exploring other parts of America. While in Florida to paint a portrait of John D. Rockefeller, he produced a group of uniquely Floridian watercolors that are breathtaking arrangements of color, form, and light. In July 1918 he accepted an invitation from the British government to travel to the Somme battlefields as an official war artist. This experience led him to produce a remarkable group of works depicting troop movements, off-duty soldiers relaxing, and the studies for his epic canvas, Gassed. Sargent returned to Boston in 1921 and 1922 to complete his mural projects, and visits to Maine and New Hampshire yielded numerous watercolors. Chapters on Sargent’s materials and the framing of his pictures complete this remarkable project.Published for The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

WINNER of the W. E. Fischelis Award from the Victorian Society in America. Accompanying a major exhibition, this is the first book devoted to the career of this renowned American painter through his brilliant portraits. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was one of the leading painters of his generation, whose captivating portraits are universally admired for their insight into character, radiance of light and color, and painterly fluency and immediacy. This unprecedented book showcases Sargent's cosmopolitan career in a new light--through his bold portraits of artists, writers, actors, and musicians, many of them his close friends--giving us a picture of the artist as an intellectual and connoisseur of the music, art, and literature of his day. Whether depicted in well-appointed interiors or en plein air, the cast of characters includes many famous subjects, among them Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Gabriel Faur , Vaslav Nijinsky, W. B. Yeats, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Henry James. Structured thematically and according to the places Sargent worked and lived--Paris, London, New York, Italy, and the Alps--this book unites informative essays by noted scholars with a wealth of imagery to offer fresh insights into Sargent's life and work.

The penultimate volume of the acclaimed catalogue raisonné showcases paintings of some of Sargent’s favorite places and people After John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) determined to curtail his internationally successful portrait practice, he had more freedom to paint where and what he wanted. Volume VIII of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné transports us to the artist’s most beloved locations, often with his friends and family. In the paintings featured here, Sargent returned to subjects that had always held deep personal connections and artistic challenges: mountains, streams, rocks and torrents, figures in repose, architecture and gardens, boats and shipping. He had known and painted the Alps since childhood, and his new Alpine studies make up the greatest number of works in this book. Beautifully designed, this volume represents a continuation in organization and presentation of the high standards that mark the series, and documents 299 works in oil and watercolor. Each painting is catalogued with full provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Wherever possible, works are illustrated in color; some are accompanied by related drawings and comparative studies by Sargent’s fellow artists. Contemporary photographs pinpoint the places and views that Sargent painted.Published in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art