Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 11

John Singer Sargent
"Study off Newport, Rhode Island" John Singer Sargent Drawing, Impressionism

1876

About the Item

John Singer Sargent Study off Newport, Rhode Island, 1876 Signed in pencil "JS265A" lower left Pencil on paper 5 x 10 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1959 Mr. William H. Bender Jr Sotheby's New York, September 19, 1987 Private Collection 1987-2000 Mark Borghi Fine Art Inc., circa 2002 Private Collection (acquired from the above), New York Recognized as the leading portraitist in England and the United States at the turn of the century, John Singer Sargent was acclaimed for his elegant and very stylish depictions of high society. Known for his technical precocity, he shunned traditional academic precepts in favor of a modern approach towards technique, color and form, thereby making his own special contribution to the history of grand manner portraiture. A true cosmopolite, he was also a painter of plein air landscapes and genre scenes, drawing his subjects from such diverse locales as England, France, Italy and Switzerland. In so doing, Sargent also played a vital role in the history of British and American Impressionism. Sargent was born in Florence in 1856. He was the first child of Dr. Fitzwilliam Sargent, a surgeon from an old New England family, and Mary Newbold Singer, the daughter of a Philadelphia merchant. His parents were among the many prosperous Americans who adopted an expatriate lifestyle during the later nineteenth century. Indeed, Sargent's family traveled constantly throughout the Continent and in England, a mode of living that enriched Sargent both culturally and socially. He ultimately became fluent in French, Italian and German, in addition to English. Having developed an interest in drawing as a boy, Sargent received his earliest formal instruction in Rome in 1869, where he was taught by the German-American landscape painter Carl Welsch. Following this, he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence during 1873-74. In the spring of 1874, Sargent's family moved to Paris, enabling him to continue his training there. He soon entered the studio of Charles-Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran. In contrast to most French academic painters, Carolus-Duran taught his students to paint directly on the canvas, capturing the essence of his subject through relaxed brushwork, a tonal palette and strong chiaroscuro. Although Sargent also spent four years studying drawing under Léon Bonnat at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, it was Carolus-Duran's approach that would form the aesthetic basis of his style. Upon his teacher's advice, Sargent also traveled to Spain and Holland to study the work of old master painters such as Diego Velázquez and Frans Hals, both of whom also employed deft, fluid techniques. In 1876, Sargent made his first visit to the United States, claiming his American citizenship and visiting the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. One year later, he spent the summer in Cancale, in France's Brittany region, where he painted outdoors, applying Carolus-Duran's strategies to portrayals of fishing folk on sunlit beaches. His reputation in Paris was established in 1878 when his Oyster Gatherers of Cancale (1878; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) won an Honorable Mention at that year's Salon. During the early 1880s, Sargent began making painting trips abroad, working in Venice in 1880 and 1882, where he painted street scenes and interiors notable for their brilliant play of light and shadow. He also embarked on what would be a lucrative career as a portraitist, producing such well known works as The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). His early commissions also included an image of Madame Pierre Gautreau. A renowned beauty and member of Parisian society, Madame Gautreau was known for her bold, unorthodox approach towards fashion. In her portrait, entitled "Madame X" (1884; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Sargent effectively captured her distinctive aura. However, his daring realism, coupled with fact that he portrayed a diamond shoulder strap falling off one of her shoulders, caused such an uproar that his career in France was seriously compromised. As a result of the controversy surrounding "Madame X,"Sargent left Paris in 1886, settling permanently in London. He subsequently flourished in the English capital, becoming the leading portrait painter to the upper classes. Those who shared Sargent's sense of refinement and sophistication, as well as his international viewpoint, were especially drawn to his fashionable French style. In addition to patronage from such prominent British families as the Wertheimers and the Marlboroughs, Sargent received an equal number of American commissions, many of them secured by artists and architects he had met during his student days in Paris, among them painters J. Carroll Beckwith and Julian Alden Weir and architect Stanford White. On a painting tour to America during 1887-1888, he portrayed members of notable families from Boston and New York, including Mrs. Jacob Wendell and Elizabeth Allen Marquand. Like their British counterparts, Sargent's American patrons were drawn to his distinctive style. However, his solid New England ancestry also worked to his advantage, helping him to establish connections in upper class society. Interest in his work in Boston was given further impetus by a solo exhibition of his paintings at the St. Botolph Club in 1888. Two years later, Sargent became involved with the mural decorations for the Boston Public Library, a project that would occupy him until 1919. He went on to execute murals for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1916-25) and for the Widener Library at Harvard University (1921-22). At the same time that he was moving to the forefront of portraiture, Sargent was also forging a reputation as a painter of Impressionist landscapes and genre subjects. He spent the summer of 1885 in Broadway, a small village in Worcestershire, where he painted "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" (Tate Gallery, London), a depiction of two small girls in a flower garden. When debuted at the Royal Academy in May of 1887, the painting's bright colors and decorative qualities created a major stir in the British art world. Members of the progressive New English Art Club were especially receptive to the work's Impressionist qualities, and as a result, they hailed him as the leader of the so-called "dab and spot school." When "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the nation, Sargent's reputation in England was given a further boost. Sargent's Impressionist inclinations were also sparked by his growing relationship with Claude Monet. In 1885, he made what would be the first of several visits to Monet's home in Giverny. Indeed, Sargent is believed to have met the Frenchman at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. However, their friendship did not develop until the mid-1880s, when Sargent began to take a greater interest in painting outdoors. In his well known canvases, "Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood" (1885; Tate Gallery, London) and "Claude Monet in his Bateau-Atelier" (1887; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), Sargent paid homage to his friend as well as to the very act of painting in the open air. His admiration for Monet and his artistic accomplishments is also revealed by the fact that between 1887 and 1891, Sargent purchased four of his paintings for his personal collection. He visited Monet in Giverny again in 1887, 1888, 1889 and 1891. Monet obviously admired Sargent's work as well, for he is known to have hung several of Sargent's paintings in his bedroom, along with other canvases by other artist-friends. Sargent's popularity in England reached its zenith during the mid-1890s. By this point, the artist had moved away from the sharp lighting of his early portrait work, adopting a softer chiaroscuro and buttery brushwork that enhanced the opulence and grandeur of his portraits. Although his aesthetic had already been accepted by his patrons, it received "official" recognition in 1897, when Sargent was elected an academician of both the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the National Academy of Design in New York. Yet despite his overwhelming success as an international portraitist, Sargent's artistic concerns eventually began to move in another direction. In 1906, he abandoned formal portraiture in order to concentrate on plein air landscapes and genre subjects, as well as his mural work. He spent the remainder of his career making extended painting trips to France, Italy, Switzerland and elsewhere, often accompanied by an entourage that included his sister Emily and her friend Eliza Wedgewood, and his good friend, the painter Wilfrid de Glehn and his wife, the painter Jane Emmet. Many of the works produced on these trips were executed in watercolor, a medium in which Sargent excelled. John Singer Sargent died in London in 1925, the evening before he was scheduled to depart for another trip to Boston. One of America's most celebrated painters, his work is represented in major public collections throughout England, the United States and elsewhere, including the Brooklyn Museum; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia; the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Royal Portrait Gallery in London.
More From This SellerView All
  • "Old Russell House, " Charles Marion Russell, Western American Drawing
    By Charles Marion Russell
    Located in New York, NY
    Charles Marion Russell (1864 - 1926) Old Russell House Pencil on paper 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York Raydon Galleries, ...
    Category

    Late 19th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pencil, Paper

  • "Monhegan Island, Maine, " Edward Dufner, American Impressionism Landscape View
    By Edward Dufner
    Located in New York, NY
    Edward Dufner (1872 - 1957) Monhegan Island, Maine Watercolor on paper Sight 16 x 20 inches Signed lower right With a long-time career as an art teacher and painter of both 'light' and 'dark', Edward Dufner was one of the first students of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy to earn an Albright Scholarship to study painting in New York. In Buffalo, he had exchanged odd job work for drawing lessons from architect Charles Sumner. He also earned money as an illustrator of a German-language newspaper, and in 1890 took lessons from George Bridgman at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. In 1893, using his scholarship, Dufner moved to Manhattan and enrolled at the Art Students League where he studied with Henry Siddons Mowbray, figure painter and muralist. He also did illustration work for Life, Harper's and Scribner's magazines. Five years later, in 1898, Dufner went to Paris where he studied at the Academy Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and privately with James McNeill Whistler. Verification of this relationship, which has been debated by art scholars, comes from researcher Nancy Turk who located at the Smithsonian Institution two 1927 interviews given by Dufner. Turk wrote that Dufner "talks in detail about Whistler, about how he prepared his canvasas and about numerous pieces he painted. . . A great read, the interview puts to bed" the ongoing confusion about whether or not he studied with Whistler. During his time in France, Dufner summered in the south at Le Pouleu with artists Richard Emil Miller...
    Category

    Early 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Waterco...

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • "Beach Scene at Dieppe" James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Tonalist Watercolor
    By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
    Located in New York, NY
    James Abbott McNeill Whistler Beach Scene at Dieppe, 1885-86 Watercolor on paper, mounted on board 8 1/2 x 5 inches Signed on the reverse Provenance: Miss Annie Burr Jennings Mrs. ...
    Category

    1880s Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor, Paper

  • "Gloucester Harbor at Sunset, " John Hare, Cape Ann, New England Watercolor View
    Located in New York, NY
    John Hare Gloucester Harbor at Sunset, Massachusetts Signed lower right Watercolor on paper 16 x 12 inches John Cuthbert Hare, 1908-1978, was a watercolorist who painted boats, seascapes and harbor scenes. He was primarily associated New England, especially Cape Cod, Massachusetts where he spent his summers from 1938 to 1965. However, he was in Florida where he was a member of the St. Augustine Art Association, and other locations on the East Coast. It is likely Hare was born in New York City. He first studied commercial art in Brooklyn at the Pratt Institute and also studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan. He worked for Hearst newspapers corporation, and in 1933 married. In the next few years, he and his wife traveled extensively, camping and painting and exhibiting his work in galleries. In 1935, they visited St. Augustine and an exhibition of his watercolors was held there in the old bank...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • "Old Adobe Village, New Mexico" Alice Schille, Taos Pueblo, Female Impressionist
    By Alice Schille
    Located in New York, NY
    Alice Schille Old Adobe Village, New Mexico Signed lower right Watercolor on paper 5 x 6 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist Keny and Johnson Gallery, Columbus, Ohio Santa Fe East Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico Private Collection, California A painter in watercolor and oil, Alice Schille was a prolific artist using modernist styles of Post-Impressionism, Pointillism and Fauvism. Her subjects included portraits of women and children, landscapes with and without figures, a series of scenes of New York City. New Mexico, and Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her paintings also reflected her widespread international travels in Europe, North Africa, Russia, the Middle East, Mexico, and Guatemala. Although personally very shy, Schille possessed unusual courage and strength of will, which was reflected in both her independent lifestyle and in her work, as she continually worked to master new modes of painting throughout her career. A German critic once referred to Schille as "this daredevil disciple of art who is interested in anything and afraid of nothing." Alice Schille was born in Columbus, Ohio to a family supported by her father's success in manufacturing. She was raised in Columbus, and by the time she was age six, she determined to be an artist. She graduated at the top of her class from Central High School in 1887, studied from 1891 to 1893 at the Columbus Art School, and returned there as a teacher from 1902 to 1948. Going to New York City as a young woman, she enrolled in the Art Students League from 1897 to 1899 and then the New York School of Art with William Merritt Chase and Kenyon Cox. (Some years later, she attended Chase's Shinnecock Summer School on Long Island). From 1903 to 1904, Alice Schille was in Paris at the Academie Colarosi, and also studied privately with Raphael Collin, Rene Prinet, Gustave Courtois and Chase, who was then in Europe. In 1904, five of her paintings were accepted for exhibition at Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts, and from that time on her work was included regularly in important American annual exhibitions including the Pennsylvania Academy, the Corcoran Gallery, American Watercolor Society, Boston Art Club, and the 1987 inaugural exhibition of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. Between 1905 and 1914, Alice Schille painted in Europe, and during the summers of 1916 to 1918, worked in New York and Gloucester. In 1919, she was in New Mexico. On this trip, her first to the Southwest, she spent a summer in Taos and Santa Fe and painted scenes including the Taos Pueblo, Canyon Road and local Hispanic and Indian figures. Reportedly the Ranchos de Taos Church was one of her favorite subjects. Many of these New Mexico paintings were hung at annual exhibitions of the Philadelphia Water Color Club. Between 1920 and 1940, she traveled frequently in the summers, returning to New Mexico and going to Central America and Africa. In 1922, she began her first series of North-African watercolors...
    Category

    1920s American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • "River Landscape" Julian Alden Weir, American Impressionist, Connecticut Scene
    By Julian Alden Weir
    Located in New York, NY
    Julian Alden Weir River Landscape Signed lower left Watercolor on paper 9 x 11 1/2 inches Provenance: Kraushaar Galleries, New York Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 1965, Lot 27 E....
    Category

    Late 19th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor, Paper

You May Also Like
  • Beauregard House, New Orleans
    By Louis Oscar Griffith
    Located in New Orleans, LA
    Louis Oscar Griffith (1875-1956) was an American painter known for his etchings, paintings, and aquatints of landscapes, especially scenes of Brown County, Indiana, New Orleans, LA and Texas. Griffith was born in Indiana in 1875 but later moved to Dallas, TX with his family. As a teen, he took art lessons with acclaimed landscape artist, Frank Reaugh...
    Category

    1910s Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Graphite

  • "Central Park"
    By William Langson Lathrop
    Located in Lambertville, NJ
    Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork. Signed. Complemented by a hand carved and gilt frame. William L. Lathrop (1859-1938) Deemed “Father of the New Hope Art Colony”, William Langson Lathrop was born in Warren, Illinois. He was largely self-taught, having only studied briefly with William Merritt Chase in 1887, at the Art Students League. Lathrop first moved east in the early 1880s, and took a job at the Photoengraving Company in New York City. While there, he befriended a fellow employee, Henry B. Snell. The two men became lifelong friends and ultimately, both would be considered central figures among the New Hope Art Colony. Lathrop's early years as an artist were ones of continuing struggle. His efforts to break through in the New York art scene seemed futile, so he scraped enough money together to travel to Europe with Henry Snell in1888. There he met and married an English girl, Annie Burt. Upon returning to New York, he tried his hand at etching, making tools from old saw blades. Even though his prints were extremely beautiful, he still was impoverished. Lathrop would return to his family in Ohio, before once again attempting the New York art scene. In 1899, with great trepidation, he submitted five small watercolors to an exhibit at the New York Watercolor Club. He won the Evans Prize, the only award given, and four of the five paintings were sold the opening night. At age forty Lathrop’s career would finally take off and he became an “overnight success Lathrop came to Phillips Mill for the first time in1898, to visit his boyhood friend, Dr. George Marshall. Shortly after, he and his family purchased the old miller’s house from Dr. Marshall. The Lathrop’s home became a social and artistic center for the growing New Hope colony. Tea and fascinating conversation was the “order of the day” every Sunday. This was a scene fondly recalled by many younger art students that Lathrop taught privately at Phillips Mill. It was common to see groups of his students painting and sketching along the banks of the canal or aboard his canal boat. He had previously taught in the Poconos and at the Lyme, Connecticut Summer School in1907, but Phillips Mill always remained Lathrop’s permanent address. In 1928, a committee headed by Lathrop was formed to purchase the old Phillips Mill building as a place to hold community gatherings and art exhibitions. The committee had success and in 1929 the Phillips Mill Community Association was formed. This became the center of the New Hope Art Colony holding annual exhibitions and still operating today. In 1930, Lathrop had built a sailboat he named the “Widge”. For eight consecutive seasons he sailed it along the coast of Long Island...
    Category

    Early 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Waterco...

    Materials

    Graphite, Paper

  • "Horse Cart"
    By Daniel Garber
    Located in Lambertville, NJ
    Jim’s of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Daniel Garber (1880 - 1958). One of the two most important and, so far, the most valuable of the New Hope Sc...
    Category

    Early 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Waterco...

    Materials

    Graphite, Paper

  • 19th Century Maritime Seascape, USS Steam Frigate Niagara
    Located in Soquel, CA
    19th century maritime seascape of a naval ship similar to those used in the war of 1812, by William B. Hoff (American, 1846-1903). This miniature wat...
    Category

    19th Century American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor, Paper, Graphite

  • Mid 20th Century, Belgium, A Gent Morning Market
    By Leonard Machin Rowe
    Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
    Belgium. Gent - A Morning Market by Leonard Machin Rowe (1880-1968) signed and inscribed front lower right corner, inscribed and signed to the back watercolour painting on artist's ...
    Category

    1950s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Graphite, Watercolor

  • Ecole de Paris Mid 20th Century Paris: Atelier Studio French Watercolour
    By Henri Miloch
    Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
    Paris: Atelier Rue Alain Chartier by Henri Miloch (1898-1979) unsigned but inscribed by Miloch verso watercolour and graphite painting on artist's paper, unframed sheet: 11 x 14 inc...
    Category

    1940s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Graphite, Watercolor

Recently Viewed

View All