John Singer Sargent, Drawings

one may ask what is the secret to John Singer Sergeant how was he so enabled to rise to such Heights in his chosen profession what indeed is the explanation of why he could do so many works with his own hand that hand was a highly trained and obedient servant of his eye and his eye took in at a glance those Salient facts of appearance out of which the average person builds his world and as he never felt tempted to probe emotions deeply but to probe analyze and discover what the eye sees in truth and in wholeness nevertheless with prolonged contemplation there was nothing to check his unbounded energy nothing to prevent him from succeeding as he did every time a young John Singer sergeant in 1874 at the age of 18 has a portfolio of drawings to be presented at the famous atellier of one of frances's Premier portrait artists the drawings that he was able to show to carolos Duran upon his arrival in Paris were of the sort that would have pleased English writer art historian and art critic John Ruskin and the English preite painters in the drawings there were Ivy Vines were drawn climbing over casement windows with every separate stem and vein shown with minuscule faithfulness already the boy's drawings had been seen and commended by no less a man than Frederick Leighton the future Lord Leighton and president of the Royal Academy it is not to be supposed that these juvenile studies were great masterpieces far from it but what was more to the point they indicated that this precocious young person was a serious and industrious student who was already seeing things with his own eyes and was not afraid of work so it was that the young Sergeant departed from Italy their winter quarters and applied for admission to the atellier of carolos Duran located in the boulevard mon Paras as carolos Duran looked over the contents of the young man's portfolio and saw that he had much to unlearn he also saw signs of Promise far above the average the applicant was accepted as a pupil and began his studies he was industrious alert and thorough and soon became one of the French Master's favorite pupils we'll show them something at the salon yet said carolus Duran but John's Sergeant did not stop there his ambition to master all aspects of his craft meant that he had to work hard and along with colleague Carol Beckwith decided to join the art classes for drawing at Ivan's atellier evenings and he added to that the atellier of Leon Bona it was expected for students at carolus Duran Studio to be be well grounded in their draftsmanship for to be able to lay in a portrait in paint one must have sufficient skills to do it once and correctly so repeated drawing exercises were the insurance that that hurdle was not a misstep in this presentation our goal is to look more carefully into the art of drawing and in particular the growth of Sergeant success that contributed to his Mastery of the brush as they go handin hand carolus Ran's skill at showing the student how to master the big shapes of blocking in a portrait or figure meant Sergeant would need to master the characterization of the model with as little detail as possible but be able to capture the essence very precisely each stroke of the brush must be carefully positioned so that the volumes Faithfully represent the forms as light passes over them with all subtlety in the middle tones drawing the forms in charcoal is one of the best ways to sort out values as opposed to linearly with the pencil where one can flesh out the shapes correctly and accurately in Sergeant's drawings his particular skill to express light was far above his peers due to his insistence and understanding of the flow of light that he innately was able to grasp as the real skill needed to excel whether in charcoal or pencil and it can be added that his watercolor paintings broadened that skill with this kind of discipline he covered all the bases needed to master his craft without hesitation the third thing that was part of his practice was the challenge to paint or draw whatever was before him his adage that one needed to be curious was not just a byword but something he worked at look around be alert not too fussy about what but how to put to paper or canvas the thing in front of your eyes this unusual practice can also be traced to the Italian painters of the day who sought unremarkable plain aspects of of landscape or groups and candidly recorded them to great effect no doubt this attitude was already part of Sergeant's character as he was noted to be shy and reserved but always alert and ready to Simply get at it travel was to play apart as well to stay fresh and at the top of one's game meant one needed fresh new ideas and challenges we mentioned these items to help to identify why Sergeant was able to be consistently on top of his game and not slip into a routine that can bog one down even for the best of artists over time his portrait work in charcoal that we will be concerned with later must not overshadow the many studies and remarkable drawing exercises that came before and are wonderful to see as part of our discovery of his working method artist colleagues continued to be a part of an Entourage that enabled Sergeant to sketch those around him many of the sketches were gifts but many others amazingly were tucked away more likely never seen by the public and may have been among his numerous portfolios but now are being seen again and can be viewed and studied with interest today it's not surprising and has been noted his first experiments in line and color were taught at his mother's knee and from the outset drawing seemed to come natural to him he early showed remarkable precision and what was more important a faculty For straightway Hitting off the tricks of expression in the face a gift which he was later to develop into deadly accuracy meanwhile he received a good classical education chiefly in Florence and later attended the Academy of Fine Arts in that City now let's take a closer look into Sergeant's amazing command of drawing and the skill he possessed to record light we find he never shied away from difficult or unusual lighting effects but rather welcomed them it is one thing to draw or paint under a single light source in the studio and quite another to have it coming from all directions and it may be further observed in the effects of out-of-door rendering where the middle tones are so closely related that it can be the ultimate Challenge as any artist can attest Sergeant is noted for his quick decisions to travel at a given impulse and copying the Old Masters was an important part as he was looking for inspiration from outside sources to stay fresh his notations became integral to growing his observation abilities his adage that you can't do sketches enough sketch everything and keep your curiosity fresh was his advice to others and he was the first to abide by that motto Sergeant searched out everything his choices of subject were wide ranging and often could be complex so drawing out a thing or idea was the best way to start it forces one to put down on paper what the mind and eye take in it is that kind of discipline that fleshes out beforehand any design problems that await or if indeed it was picture worthy to pursue one never knows whether a sketch done impr promptu may lead to something even further down the road in the studio from his famous oyster gatherers and throughout his career drawing and more drawing was a consistent habit and the best one to have it was an instance where Sergeant took on a complex idea from his early training with carolus Jiran and won him recognition from the salon of 1878 in Venice Sergeant took to his watercolors as well as oils to paint one of his favorite motifs architecture and he threw in gondolas as well for good measure his curiosity but more importantly his challenging mindset to be accurate and to the other point suggestive for the whole impression must must be the thing sought for as time went on for sergeant and his ever blossoming career over time he wearied of doing portrait after portrait often times the demands to get a likeness and to please a client in order to paint them as they see themselves can be daunting not to mention the constant perfectionism that he demanded of himself as can be witnessed by the repeated attempts to paint a head over and over sometimes as many as a dozen times which it may be said is a powerful testimony to his true professionalism his reprieve from the constant requests for portrait work was the occasional full-blown composition simply to do as one wishes exercise the need to be creatively able to finally paint something that satisfies the hunger to paint that thing that was in the mind and perhaps was put off for another more appropriate time such is the case of his famous ELO the Spanish influence is unmistakable in this work and he did many studies to find the right way to express the oddly lit room of musicians and Dancer a t of force to be sure so as he slowly decides to limit his portrait activity it also becomes apparent that a habit after so many years when it's been one's work for so long to keep doing them even when his mind wearies of another one coming continues in another form he finds the one way to satisfy the demands and it may be added to stay fresh at one skill he decides on portrait drawings exclusively and in this period of his career he begins the finest of his efforts while doing them his ability to capture the essence and character of an individual was always his to use his great gifts he did not take for granted and his adage that to work is to pray is fitting here he he can use every sort of imaginative device and arrangement to be able to satisfy his client and his own interests all the while avoiding a lengthy oil portrait painting process which is no longer an issue while John Sergeant is on his quest to limit the oil portrait demands in preference to charcoal drawings he has offered an opportunity along with Edwin Austin Abbey to paint a large project for a mural decoration in Boston and he will spend the rest of his life in preparing for for that and the debut will be Monumental and by all accounts a final tour to force he and Abby begin with great excitement and share Studio space occasionally which no doubt will find each inspiring one another it is with the various studies and final results that we wish to focus our attention on at this point the profit series alone would be sufficient to examine but there is so much more in the series that can be reviewed however we we will do that more properly in another presentation the wonderful figures drawings oils sketches and compositional design elements are exemplary in the history of mural decoration Sergeant is again able to venture into this new territory with gusto and his inventiveness to work into the architectural spaces provided gives new challenges for him and he makes an impact with the prophet's singular gestures alone they are quite striking and the many preliminary sketches shown here are but just a small sampling that is within the Boston museum of art collection so we see the prophets in Sergeant's Viewpoint are as reverent and as moving in terms of their painted presence not unlike the power of Michael Angelo and his Vatican ceiling orbe it the rendering by Sergeant more contemporary and naturalistic but strong in emotion and feeling at the same time his Prophet mural Series has been acclaimed ever since being produced in books and prints and artists have revered his skill to be able to transition to the scale that mural painting requires seemingly with little struggle it has been remarked by many writers and artists alike who knew him that Sergeant was able to work at the rate He did apparently without additional help that it almost seems to be on the order of heroic his drawing skills never subsided even though at the early age of 51 he chose to retire from portrait painting yet he was still very much in the game moving forward to the more personal projects that gave him greater challenges and the ability to pick and choose whatever fancied him our look at the drawings by Sergeant only touches the surface of the vast number of drawings all of which are highly treasured by their respective owners and thus far the charcoal portrait drawings number about 750 in existence his pictures possess the strong imprint of light and Shadow but within that structure is the modeling of of middle tones that comes from an innate skill present in the finest Masters throughout the ages he never disappoints us with his bravura and ability to confidently wield the brush and with that we trust you enjoyed this brief look at some of the drawings by a master Craftsman as much as we did we wish to thank all who have already subscribed to the channel and remember to leave a like as it helps our efforts to reach out we have many more great talents to share and their stories so until next time it's by for [Music] now

Channel: Gammell Lack Institute of American Art

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Keywords: John Singer Sargent, American artist, Academic Artist, Naturalism, Realism, art history, great art, famous artist, famous paintings, impressionism, famous paintings slideshow, portrait artist, oil painting, John Singer Sargent watercolors, Sargent paintings, plein air painting, charcoal drawings, Sargent drawings, Art Master, art, beautiful paintings, charcoal drawing, portraits in oil, fine art, painting, art tips, portrait art, pencil drawing, watercolor, great art explained

Id: bwjCvwRkgJs

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024