John Singer Sargent

Basic Information

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was an American portrait painter trained in Paris in the atelier of Carolus-Duran, whose most celebrated pupil he became. Marie never met him in the pages of the diary; he appears only as a name at the Salon, a rival measure of what portraiture could be.

In Marie's Diary

- May 1882 (095.0045): at the Salon, "le portrait de jeune fille par Sargent" haunts her. She calls it ravishing, an exquisite work one would gladly hang in a museum beside the van Dycks and Velázquez.

- May 1883 (099.0305): reviewing the Salon painter by painter, she dismisses him in two words: "Sargent est médiocre."

- May–June 1884 (104.0058, 104.0557): the portrait of Mme Gautreau, the future Madame X, is the succès de curiosité of the Salon and generally found atrocious. Marie disagrees: for her it is perfect, masterly, true painting; Sargent simply painted what he saw, and the sitter's heavy make-up is what looks horrible in daylight. A month later she still lists it among the few good things in the show, "tant décrié et pourtant très bon".

Related Entries

- #Carolus_Duran — his teacher, whom Marie also studied under
- #Portrait_de_Mme_X — the 1884 Gautreau portrait
- #Salon — where Marie saw his work