The common saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. Whether those words tell a lie or not is a whole different question. Debra Brehmer’s essay, “Every Portrait Tells a Lie”, discusses this exact problem of portraiture. Brehmer expresses her feeling that portraits tell a lie due to the fact that they are in a “tug of war between the objective or subjective or between likeness and interpretation.” What Brehmer most has a problem with is the fact that what a portrait may seem to be in an artistic form, may be entirely different in reality. She compares this to a Christmas photograph taken of her and her bother; while within the frame the siblings looked as if they were happy go-lucky, the two tended to not get along.
Christmas Sibling Picture-within the lens
Brehmer blames this lie on the theory that her father was motivated by a hopeful vision of a happy-family. This idea seems extremely relatable. There are countless times throughout my childhood where I must put a smile on for the camera. This goes without saying that majority of the time I already have a smile on my face, and there is no reason to pretend to be exuberant. However, many wretched experiences in life are replicated as happy times in distorted pictures.
Christmas Sibling Picture-out of the lens
Furthermore, Brehmer believes that portraiture is a bit of an impossibility. When an artist tries to accurately depict a subject, Brehmer believes that a portrait is set up for failure due to the impossibility of capturing a precise fleeting moment and portrayal.
However, it seems as if these two problems exposed by Brehmer reveal what it takes to be a genius of an artist. To reach such greatness, an artist must need a personal style, only subjective to one’s own interpretations; and a courageous, dauntless character who is only satisfied by his or her own perfection. Sara Churchwell depicts such an artist in her essay, “How John Singer Sargent Made a Scene.” Churchwell quotes Henry James as saying, “Sargent was remarkable for the extraordinarily immediate translation of his perception into a picture.” John Singer Sargent seems as if he possessed these crucial attributes. Sargent was made to be anachronistic of his era. Though this may seem sort of unpleasant in the moment, I see this as being a revolutionary, and an innovator of his time. Sargent saw things in his own way, and even depicted them that way too. This is why his realism became true modernism. His contemporaries may have seen things in their personal view, but they only presented them in a traditional manner; which shortly became erroneous realism as time obviously moves on.
Sargent “brought to an apparently conventional realism an experimental sensibility, exploring psychology, narrative and identity.” In effect, John was able to create scenes straight out of his own vision. His genius renditions were exalted by so many, but mainly not until after his years; that was the consequence of being such a sincere pioneer of his time.
Lily, Lily, Rose (1886)
Lily, Lily, Rose (1886), is a piece of Sargent’s which exemplifies his commitment and fervor for his pieces. He saw scenes in his own way, and recreated these scenes in whatever way it took for him to make them authentic. It is on record that Sargent used to walk around the scene he was creating countless times, just to capture the right vision. For this specific work, Sargent borrowed the technique of Monet, and spent two years working on one piece just to capture the precise lighting. It is this type of effort and passion which I admire most of Sargent. Not only does it take the innate mastery to envision and recreate, but also one must put the work in to perfect his or her own work.
Sarah Churchwell relates the true nature of Sargent, and how he was way before his time. Sargent was not only a gifted artist, but he was also an innovator, a diligent worker, an intellectual, and a genuine professional. Due to all these traits I believe Mr. Sargent was able to overcome the deceptions of common portraiture that Debra Brehmer describes of.
Hi Max, I did not focus too much on the statement about the christmas picture, but the way you connected it to your life, helped me relate to Brehmer’s idea. I liked your statement “this goes without saying that majority of the time I already have a smile on my face, and there is no reason to pretend to be exuberant. However, many wretched experiences in life are replicated as happy times in distorted pictures,” because it made me think of photography in a new light. Photography is an easy form to deceive reality because it captures only a singular moment.