Met Museum: Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

The current exhibit at the Met Museum, Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, not only gave me an opportunity to view some of the artist's most significant works, but it also provided a fascinating glimpse of the milieu in which he lived and worked.  Almost all the paintings on display date from that period now commonly referred to as the Belle Époque.  This idyllic - at least in retrospect - era extended roughly from the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the commencement of World War I in 1914.  Although there were dark fin de siècle currents swirling everywhere beneath its surface of optimism, it was nevertheless a time of political and economic stability that enabled the arts to flourish throughout Europe and a society portraitist such as Sargent to realize a greater level of success than might otherwise have been possible.  Looking at these portraits, the viewer cannot help but be somewhat envious and wish that he too had been alive during those halcyon years and fortunate enough to have consorted with the period's social and cultural elite.  This is especially true when seeing such works as In a Garden, Corfu; The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy; and Sketching on the Giudecca, Venice.

The exhibit is broken down geographically - there are separate sections for Paris, Broadway, London and the US - but this is somewhat misleading since both the artist and his subjects were thoroughly cosmopolitan and at home in whatever part of the world they found themselves.  There are two smaller galleries that contain, respectively, the painter's landscapes and watercolors.

The highlight of the show is to be found early on in the Paris section.  This is, of course, The Portrait of Madame X whose succès de scandale - when shown at the 1884 Salon, the model's bare shoulder, later repainted, was considered almost salacious - effectively ended Sargent's career in Paris.  (Sargent was unrepentant.  When he eventually sold the painting to the Met Museum many years later, he wrote, "I suppose it is the best thing I have ever done."  Even so, he asked the museum not to disclose the sitter's name.)  But there are other works just as interesting.  The portrait of the Sargent's teacher, Carolus-Duran, is notable for what it reveals of the artist's style.  While the subject's face is perfectly sharp, the rest of the canvas, especially the subject's fawn green suit, is much more softly done.  It is almost as if the painting were a photograph that had been subject to selective soft focus.  The portrait of Auguste Rodin is extremely sympathetic; the sculptor, whose eyes stare speculatively at the viewer, is revealed as a much more sensitive individual than can be seen in most other likenesses, even those done by Steichen.  One work in this section that is especially striking is Rehearsal of the Pasdeloup Orchestra at the Cirque d'Hiver, an almost monochromatic exercise in impressionist style that seems strangely modern for its time.

The next section is dominated by two full length portraits.  These are Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, as dramatic a composition as could be imagined, and the portrait of Edwin Booth.  In the latter, though the famous actor is not shown playing a part, he can be seen as a totally tragic character in his own right, one forever haunted by the specter of his brother's horrendous crime.

In terms of composition, the most intriguing work at the show is Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife in which the standing writer is seen in profile at the left of the frame while his almost completely veiled wife slouches on a settee at the extreme right; an open doorway has been placed between them.  Another such startlingly idiosyncratic composition is A Dinner Table at Night.  In this, the viewer's attention is first directed to the brightly shining red lamp in the left-hand background and only then to the table where the placid wife, Edith Vickers, is seated holding a glass of wine, her face lit by two more red lamps; her husband Albert has meanwhile been placed so far to the right that he is partly out of the frame.  Both these works seem more candid photographs than they do painted portraits.

Although Sargent's name is instantly familiar to anyone with the least knowledge of American art, his works are actually not that often displayed.  The instant exhibit is the first I can remember having seen in many years.  It was refreshing then to have been shown another side of the artist than that of the mannered society portraitist with whom his reputation is most often associated.

The exhibit continues through October 4, 2015.