John Singer Sargent
1856 – 1925
Madame X, Venetian watercolours and the Boston murals - the art of John Singer Sargent
About John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was born in Florence on January 12, 1856, to American parents who had left the United States for Europe two years earlier. His father, FitzWilliam Sargent, had been an eye surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia and a capable medical illustrator; his mother, Mary Newbold Singer Sargent, was a capable amateur artist, and the family's constant moves between European cities and resorts kept the boy sketching.…
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Notable Works
Madame X (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau)
Begun in 1883 and shown at the 1884 Paris Salon as Portrait de Mme ***, this full-length profile of the wife of the banker Pierre Gautreau provoked a scandal; Sargent afterwards repainted the…
Browse the collection →Whispers (Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau and a Friend)
A charcoal and graphite drawing of about 1883-84 showing Madame Gautreau in conversation, made in the same period as the Madame X portrait and one of several sheets that record Sargent's study of…
Browse the collection →En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)
Women and children of Cancale in Brittany walk out across the wet sand with baskets and nets. Shown at the 1878 Paris Salon, it was one of the young painter's first public successes; a smaller…
Browse the collection →Timeline
Born January 12 in Florence to the American expatriates FitzWilliam Sargent and Mary Newbold Singer Sargent
At thirteen, takes watercolour lessons from the German landscape painter Carl Welsch
Moves to Paris in May and begins training with Carolus-Duran; sits the entrance examination of the École des Beaux-Arts
Exhibits at the Paris Salon for the first time and works with Carolus-Duran on a ceiling for the Luxembourg Palace
Shows the Cancale oyster gatherers (En route pour la pêche) at the Salon
"I suppose it is the best thing I have done."
— John Singer Sargent