JOHN

See also:

• SINGER, SIMEON (1846-1906)

SINGER

See also:

• JOHN SINGER SARGENT (1856– )

SARGENT (1856– )  , American artist, son of a distinguished Boston physician, was born at Florence, Italy, on the 12th of January 1856 . He was educated in Italy and Germany, and in 1874 entered the atelier of Carolus-Duran in Paris . He received an " honourable mention " in the Salon of 1878 for his " En route pour la peche," and in 1881 a second class medal for his " Portrait of a Young Lady " (made famous by Henry James's appreciation) . In 1886 his "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose," exhibited at the Royal Academy, was bought for the Chantrey Bequest . He rapidly became known in London as a brilliant portrait painter, and year by year his Academy portraits were the leading features of its exhibitions . Though of the French school, and American by birth, it is as a British artist that he won fame by his vogue as the most sought-after portrait painter of the day, his sitters including the men and women of greatest distinction in the literary, artistic and social life of Europe and America . While best known, and consequently busily employed, as a portrait painter, he had at the same time a disposition towards other, and especially decorative work; his paintings of Brittany, Venice and Eastern scenes are less known, but his labour of love, the ornate decorations for the Boston public library (completed in 1903), " The Pageant of Religion," shows the other side of his genius . Among his pictures in public galleries not already mentioned are " El Jaleo " (exhibited 1882), in the Boston Art Museum; " La Carmencita," in the Luxembourg; " Coventry Patmore," in the National Portrait Gallery, London; and " Henry Marquand " (1887), in the Metropolitan Museum, New York . He was elected an A.R.A. in 1894, and R.A. in 1897; he was the recipient of various medals of honour, and was made a member of the chief artistic societies of Europe and America . 1 Adapted as an opera for the music of Puccini (Rome, 14th Jan . 1900) .