John Singer Sargent at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (original) (raw)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Boston, MA

617.267.9300

www.mfa.org

John Singer Sargent

June 27 - September 26, 1999

John Singer Sargent is the first comprehensive retrospective of one of the most admired painters (1856-1925) at the turn of the century since the memorial exhibitions that followed his death. This exhibition includes 160 of his greatest oils, watercolors, and studies for mural paintings--some never exhibited before--and draws equally from his European and American careers. The showing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) pays special attention to Sargent's work in Boston, the city he considered his American home.

A year-long restoration of Sargent's famed murals in the MFA's Upper Rotunda and Stairwell -- the last decorative works the artist completed before his death -- will be finished for the exhibition's opening. While the scenes illustrate no single theme, many glorify the arts and the power of knowledge, and include representations of gods and heroes whose legends complement the mission of the Museum.

Although Sargent had many clients in New York, Newport, Chicago, and elsewhere, he regarded Boston as the American city with which he had the strongest ties. Sargent's first solo exhibition anywhere was held in Boston in 1888; he returned to the city no less than eight times during the course of his career. As a result, many of his greatest works -- portraits, landscapes, figure studies, and watercolors -- are owned by the MFA, Harvard University, and other public and private collections in the area.

In the 1890s, Sargent embarked on a new career as a mural painter. This aspect of his work can only be seen in Boston, where his murals decorate the ceilings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a room at the Boston Public Library.

Sargent's clients were the leading members of high society in London, Paris, New York, and Boston, as well as the influential figures of American and European politics, arts, and commerce. These sitters include:

the mysterious and beautiful portrait of Madame Gautreau (Madame X), the success de scandale of the 1884 Paris salon (on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York)
the hauntingly beautiful Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (from the MFA's collection) and Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (on loan from the Tate Gallery in London)
the impressionist study of his friend Claude Monet, Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood (on loan from the Tate Gallery in London)

Renowned portraits include:

novelists Robert Louis Stevenson (on loan from The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio) and Henry James (National Portrait Gallery in London)
American financier John D. Rockefeller (on loan from Senator and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller IV)
devilishly handsome Dr. Pozzi at Home (on loan from the Armand Hammer Collection at UCLA)
stunning Lady Agnew of Lochnaw(on loan from the National Gallery of Scotland)

The following works can only be seen at the Boston venue of John Singer Sargent:

Isabella Stewart Gardner (on loan from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston)-the first time this painting been exhibited outside the Gardner Museum since 1888
Santa Maria della Salute (on loan from the Brooklyn Museum of Art)
Head of Bedouin ( on loan from Mr. and Mrs. Richard Thune)
Bedouins (on loan from the Brooklyn Museum of Art)

In conjunction with John Singer Sargent, several arts institutions around Boston will be mounting exhibitions designed to complement the MFA's exhibition, focusing on specific aspects of the painter's work, or that of his contemporaries. These include:

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Sargent: The Late Landscapes,May 21 - September 26, 1999. This exhibition of 14 handsome and surprisingly abstract works -- both oils and watercolors -- is inspired by the Gardner's dramatic painting Yoho Falls. Late Sargent landscapes include views of the Swiss Alps, Palestine, the Rockies, and other exotic locales.
Boston Athenaeum, title and dates to be determined. This show will include 12 - 15 portraits by Sargent and his contemporaries to provide a context for the work Sargent produced in Boston. Artists include Anders Zorn, Frederic Porter Vinton, Frank W. Benson, and Edmund C. Tarbell.
Harvard University Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Sargent in the Studio (working title), June 10 - September 5, 1999. Drawings, sketch books and oil sketches from the Fogg's major collection of works by Sargent will be on display.
Murals in Boston. Visitors to the MFA who wish to understand Sargent in Boston fully will be directed to Sargent's murals at the Boston Public Library -- which illustrate the history of the world's religions.

This exhibition was organized by the Tate Gallery in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The presentation in Boston is sponsored by BankBoston.

MFA curators are Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., John Moors Cabot Curator of American Paintings, Carol Troyen, Associate Curator of American Paintings, and Erica Hirshler, Associate Curator of American Paintings

The exhibition is accompanied by a 288 page catalogue which surveys and evaluates the extraordinary range of Sargent's work. More than 150 of his paintings are reproduced in color. Contributors, which include the MFA's Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Carol Troyen and Erica E. Hirshler, as well as Richard Ormond, Sargent's great-nephew, Elaine Kilmurray, and Mary Volk, leading Sargent scholars, assess the artist's career in three essays: a biographical sketch, his development as an artist, and his fascination with mural painting. The hardcover catalogue is available in the Museum of Fine Arts Bookstore and Shop.

Images from top to bottom (click on thumbnail images to enlarge them):Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose , 1885-6, oil on canvas, 68 1/2 x 60 1/2 inches, Tate Gallery, London, presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1887, MFA loan; An Artist in His Studio, 1904, oil on canvas, 22 1/8 x 28 3/8 inches, The Hayden Collection, MFA 05.56; Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, 1878, oil on canvas, 38 1/8 x 48 1/2 inches, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund, MFA loan; Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892, oil on canvas, 50 x 39 3/4 inches, National Gallery of Scotland, MFA loan; Daughters of Edward Darley Bolt , 1882, oil on canvas, 87 3/8 x 87 5/8 inches, gift of M. L. Bolt, J. O. Bolt, J. H. Bolt and F. D. Bolt in memory of their father, Edward D. Bolt, MFA, 19-124.

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