Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends - Rilegato

Ormond, Richard

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1855145456 ISBN 13: 9781855145450

Casa editrice: National Portrait Gallery Publications, 2015

Riassunto

Many of the sitters in this collection were John Singer Sargent's close friends. They are posed informally, sometimes in the act of painting or singing, and it is evident from the bold way they confront us that they are personalities of a creative stamp. Brilliant as these pictures are as works of art and penetrating studies of character, they are also records of relationships, allegiances, influences and aspirations. This volume, and the exhibition it accompanies, aims to explore these friendships in depth and draw out their significance in the story of Sargent's life and the development of his art. The book is structured chronologically, with sections arranged according to the places Sargent worked and formed relationships during his cosmopolitan career: Paris, London, New York, Italy and the Alps. The cast of characters includes famous names, among them Gabriel Faure and Auguste Rodin, Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry James. But the authors also make their point with images of Sargent's familiars, such as the artists Jane and Wilfrid de Glehn who accompanied him on his sketching expeditions to the Continent, and the Italian painter Ambrogio Raffele, a recurrent model in his Alpine studies. In such paintings Sargent explored the making of art (his own included) and the relationship of the artist to the natural world. These are examples of an absorbing range of images and personalities, all distinguished in one way or another for their artistry, and all linked by friendship and a shared aesthetic to the central figure of Sargent himself.

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Recensione:

In this fine exhibition of paintings of his friends, Sargent emerges as a more complex, multifaceted artist than the society portraitist he has sometimes been derided as. Unlike in his commissioned portraits, here revelation of characters takes precedence over the visual panache. --The Daily Telegraph

Walking into this exhibition is like being a fly on the wall at a late nineteenth-century soirée of the in-crowd ... His use of tonal expression and elegant composition flows throughout these paintings ... Sargent always retained a swift ease. The way he applies paint is delightfully contemplative. --Time Out

Anyone who enjoys the art of painting is bound to find endless charm, skill and virtuosity in Sargent's work. This exhibition, which focuses on pictures of friends, writers, musicians, actors and fellow artists, emphasises the best in him. The fun and verve are not kept on a leash, as they tended to be in his portraits of the grand and the plutocratic. --The Spectator

Su questa edizione

• Editore: National Portrait Gallery Publications
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1855145456
• ISBN 13: 9781855145450
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 256