When I was reading yesterday’s articles on John Singer Sargent, I didn’t learn much about him or his life. I mainly learned about his paintings and his style, and that is what I focused on. This made today’s articles very interesting to me because I never would have guessed that Henry James and Sargent were such close friends. Then again, that is probably why James gave Sargent such a glowing review of his work in “Picture and Text”. The article “How John Singer Sargent Made a Scene” by Sarah Churchwell focused a lot on their friendship and how their lives intertwined. What truly surprised me was how the author was able to describe Sargent’s personality simply from his friends’ quotes. Even though Churchwell’s main focus seemed to be comparing the two friends, she deviated a bit from her focus in order to elaborate even further on Sargent’s lifestyle.
I thought that “Every Portrait Tells a Lie” by Debra Brehmer was very interesting to read. I think
that what she said about portraiture is true: it is indeed a lie. People always try to get the best shot in photography, even if it means messing with how candid a scene is. Many family pictures are staged memories. The viewer of the picture, however, doesn’t see what happens before or after the picture is taken. They see a memory that has been tampered with. I feel that this may have been the case with some of Sargent’s paintings. When Churchwell stated that it was possible that him and Charlotte Louise Burckhardt (Lady With the Rose– pictured right) were having an affair, I felt like her smug face in that painting seemed like it made more sense. Maybe they had a fight right before he decided to paint her face, and ended up painting her looking like she was annoyed or angry. She looks like she seemed very bored with the idea of being the subject of his painting, as if she had modeled for him in the past many times. I feel that it is also possible that she feared suspicion from people around her if she modeled for a painting. These are all essentially crackpot theories, but I feel as though these two articles opened my eyes even more to Sargent’s works as well as his private lifestyle.
I completely agree that these two articles are a lot more eye opening about Sargent’s life. Now his work makes so much more sense than when we just read about his education and upbringing. Also, I like your theory about Lady with the Rose. The model’s expression seems more intriguing now.
After reading “How John Singer Sargent Made a Scene”, I also came to the conclusion that James gave Sargent a great review because of the fact that they are really close friend. Their relationship may make the review James gave Sargent seem a bit biased. Sarah Churchwell gave the similarities in the two friend’s background which also explains how it led to them being close friends.
I also found “Every Portrait Tells a Lie” to be very interesting. Along with family memories, I do find some of Sargent’s work to be tampered with. A bunch of the poses his models are in seem a bit too uncomfortable to hold for a long period of time, and he probably painted the most interesting version of it.
I agree that the painting of the Lady with a Rose seems a little off. Sargent could have been annoyed with her while painting the portrait, and translated it onto the artwork. That would definitely explain why her expression is a look of boredom or annoyance.