John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), one of the world’s greatest painters, was born in Florence, Italy, to American parents. As a teenager, with little formal education but already with a broad knowledge of music, architecture, and the fine arts, and fluent in four languages (English, French, German, and Italian), it was clear to him what his life’s work would be: painting. He studied in Paris, then painted there, in London, Boston, and New York. Sargent traveled in artists circles and lovingly painted his friends as well as those he admired. Richard Ormond, curator of “Sargent: Portraits of Artists at Friends” now on exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum, sums up Sargent’s portraiture:
Sargent’s portraits are admired for their insight into character, for their sense of grand design, brilliance of light and colour and for their painterly fluency. The portraits that he painted of creative personalities are often a testament to friendship, but they also reflect the wide array of influences that formed his taste and aesthetic outlook. As a young man he lost no opportunity in meeting and cultivating those artists, writers and musicians who shared his approach to art and culture, and who were themselves a source of inspiration to him. Though he was naturally reserved, and often tongue-tied in conventional society, this proved no barrier to intercourse with those in the arts whom he liked and admired.
Not surprisingly, as the leading American portraitist of his time, Sargent painted several artists who are interred at Green-Wood and others who have ties to Green-Wood. Many of Sargent’s portraits were not painted on commission, but rather were done by Sargent as a labor of love to capture the images of friends or others he admired, many of whom were painters, sculptors, writers, and actors, as well as collectors and socialites. This allowed him to show these individuals informally–doing what they did best, whether painting or performing.
The exhibition, “Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends,” is truly a blockbuster. It includes the greatest of Sargent’s portraits–a total of 90 works. The exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and continues through October 4.
John Singer Sargent’s self-portrait, 1886. He was 30 years old when he painted this; he was already a great international success by then.Sargent self-portrait, 1906. He was asked to paint a self-portrait for placement in the Vasari Corridor between the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy. Sargent, famed for his ability to capture the essence of his subjects, seems a bit uncomfortable here.
Here are two Sargent portraits of Green-Wood permanent residents, painter William Merritt Chase and actress Ada Rehan:
William Merritt Chase, 1902. Chase dominated the New York art scene for years as a portraitist, Impressionist landscapist, and teacher. Chase, who had known Sargent for 20 years, came to Sargent’s London studio to sit for his portrait and offered to pose as “either or a gentleman or as an artist.” Sargent told Chase to don “his working rags, and we will try it that way.” Here Chase is a natily-dressed gentleman artist, with palette and brushes.Detail of the Chase portrait. The paint brush and palette identify him as a painter.William Merritt Chase’s gravestone at Green-Wood. It has not aged well and is barely readable. His favorite model and wife, Alice Gerson Chase, is buried next to him.Ada Rehan, 1894-1895. Born in Limerick, Ireland, she came to America as a young girl. At the age of 16, she followed her sisters onto the stage. She was acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic for her performances in Shakespeare’s comedies and in contemporary plays.Detail of the Rehan portrait.
The Green-Wood Historic Fund has an extensive collection of photographs taken by Napoleon Sarony, the “Photographer to the Stars” who also is interred at Green-Wood. Sarony had several favorite subjects among the international superstars of the late 19th century: Ada Rehan, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Lillie Lantry, Lillian Russell, and Mary Anderson. This is one of Sarony’s many portraits of Ada Rehan:
Ada Rehan, in a Napoleon Sarony photograph.Ada Rehan died in 1916. This is her final resting place at Green-Wood, marked by a large rough-cut granite stone.
These are some of Sargent’s most famous paintings, unrelated to Green-Wood, but still fascinating:
La Carmencita Dancing, 1890. An electrifying Spanish dancer, she took New York by storm that year. Sargent was much taken by her, referring to her as “the bewildering superb creature,” and captured her in motion here.La Carmencita, 1890. This painting was a sensation when it was displayed in New York, London, and Paris.Sargent’s scandalous painting of Madame X. It was greeted with hostility at the 1884 Paris Salon. Negative reaction to it led to Sargent abandoning Paris for London.Dr. Samuel-Jean Pozzi commissioned this full-length portrait of himself in 1881. He was the father of modern French gynaecology. His hands of a surgeon are featured here. Pozzi was famous for his love affairs, including one with actress Sarah Bernhardt. He was also a collector. Sargent called him “a very brilliant creature.”Carolus-Duran was Sargent’s first tutor. Sargent joined his atelier in Paris when he was only 18 years old and quickly became its star pupil. This painting was widely praised and was exhibited in New York, Boston, London, and Paris. Painter Edgar Degas was impressed by it. It generated six commissions for Sargent.Actress Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, 1889. Sargent was in the first-night audience for Terry’s performance and was so taken with her that he resolved to paint her. Terry, after resisting posing, was pleased she did; she described the painting as “magnificent.” This portrait, displayed in London, became the sensation of the season.
Here is a Sarony photograph of Ellen Terry:
Portrait of Ellen Terry, by Napoleon Sarony.
These paintings do have associations with Green-Wood:
Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888. She and Sargent were introduced to each other by Henry James; they became lifelong friends. When Sargent came to America to work, she commissioned this portrait. She was a collector who displayed her extraordinary collection of some of the world’s great art, including several other paintings by Sargent, in her own home near Fenway Park in Boston. Unfortunately, this painting was not the success she had hoped for, and she thereafter hung it in a room in her home/museum that was closed to the public. The provisions of her will have maintained her museum since her death. She is interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Isabella Stewart Gardner’s parents are interred at Green-Wood. This is their spectacular hillside mausoleum, designed in the early 1880s by sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens and architect/designer Stanford White:
The Stewart Mausoleum, where Isabella Stewart Gardner’s parents are interred. They were great patrons of the arts, hiring the very prominent team of sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens and architect/designer Stanford White to create their mausoleum at Green-Wood. She inherited their love of art. Sargent had long-standing friendships with both Saint Gaudens and White.Sargent’s sketch of American actress Mary Anderson, dated 1913. She was a star of the dramatic stage on both sides of the Atlantic until 1889, when, perhaps in response to hostile reviews in the American press, she retired at the age of 30, married a year later, and settled in England. There she and Sargent became friends, sharing a circle of cultured acquaintances.
Mary Anderson, at the height of her career in the 1880s, was a popular subject for photographer Napoleon Sarony. He photographed her many times; here is one of his portraits of her, taken about 30 years before Sargent painted her:
Mary Anderson, in a Napoleon Sarony photograph, circa 1885.Actress Eleanor Duse, who rivaled Sarah Bernhardt as the greatest tragedienne of Europe and America in the latter part of the 19th century. This painting dates to 1893. Sargent convinced her to sit for him, but she stayed less than an hour, then left, with these parting words: “I wish you a thousand years of life, glory and many children, but now goodbye.” Sargent never saw her again.
At Green-Wood, there is a large granite stone with many inscriptions on it. It is Martin Waldron’s gravestone:
Actor and rtist Martin Waldron’s gravestone; Eleanora Duse was his godmother.
Martin’s godmother was Eleanor Duse–and he had this single inscription carved on the back of his gravestone:
The back of Martin Waldron’s gravestone, on Green-Wood’s Battle Hill, contains this inscription to his godmother.
You will find Martin Waldron’s fascinating life story, including his relationship with Eleonora Duse, here. As Fred Plotkin writes on the WQXR website, in his recent account of Waldron’s life, “The Spirit of Martin Waldron,”
In the autumn of 1922 in New York, Catania took her grandson (Martin Waldron) to meet Eleonora Duse (1858-1924), one of the world’s greatest actresses.Catania asked Duse to become the boy’s godmother and the actress, taken with the unusual story of the child’s beginnings, agreed. The child was raised with the knowledge that his godmother was one of the most remarkable performers on stage and, in its earliest years, film.
Edwin Booth, 1890. From a family of actors (his younger brother, actor John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre), Booth collaborated with Stanford White, who designed the Stewart Mausoleum at Green-Wood (see above) to turn his home on Gramercy Park into the Players Club, a gathering spot for their friends and actors. Booth is painted here by Sargent, standing in front of the Players Club fireplace.Edwin Booth paid for fellow-actor David Christian Anderson’s gravestone at Green-Wood. He had inscribed on it: “He was a man of honesty and truth. This stone is set mark his place of exit from this stage unto higher and more real scenes. By his friend Edwin Booth. A Masonic symbol is carved to the left of Booth’s name.
The exhibition at The Met, “Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends,” brings together 90 portraits by this world-class artist. Some are of individuals interred at Green-Wood. Some are of fascinating individuals having no ties to Green-Wood. And others are of artists and friends of Sargent who have some sort of a connection to Green-Wood. In any case, this exhibition is a great gathering of wonderful portraits. Don’t miss it!
Thanks to The Metropolitan Museum for many of these images and for permission to use them in this blog post.
