DOI Heft:
No. 84 (March, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The art of John S. Sargent, R. A., [2]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19784#0125
yohn S. Sargent, R.A.
fantasy and apparent irregularity of the composi- feeling for decorative contrivance accounts for the
tion the deep consideration of exact pattern is very zeal with which Mr. Sargent has thrown himself
strongly felt, and yet it is not obtrusive. No into the work which is being carried on at the
mechanical repetition or balancing of forms, no Boston Library. In the wonderful scheme of
conventional distribution of the colour masses, no adornment devised for that building a group of
laborious acquiescence with what are mis-called prominent artists is concerned, and to him has
the laws ot decoration, can be criticised as harming been assigned a very important share in the under-
the pictorial illusion by their over-accentuation of taking. That he should have been chosen may
the artistic mechanism, and yet the more the seem strange to people who are accustomed to
picture is examined the more appreciable becomes think of him only as a portrait-painter, and have
the skill with which the painter has managed his never troubled to search beneath the surface of his
work, and the taste with which he has perfected art to see what manner of man he really is. But
even the smallest details of his design. everyone who knows him well and realises what
The possession of this innate and instinctive are the moving principles of his practice will
appreciate the excel-
lence of the judgment
that selected a thinker
of such originality and
a designer with so
much invention to at-
tempt a piece of work
which gave him a real
chance of distinguish-
ing himself. The com-
mission was, perhaps,
something of an experi-
ment, but there was
little likelihood that
the result of it would
be anything but a suc-
cess of a very striking
and remarkable kind.
A success it most
surely has been, even
if it has not developed
in the direction that
must have been gene-
rally expected. From
a painter of modern
life, always keenly in
touch with the charac-
teristics of contempo-
rary existence, the
Lutiette, and Portion
of Ceiling, which ap-
peared in the Academy
Exhibition in 1894,
came as a distinct
surprise. This section
of the Boston decora-
tion was the first reve-
lation of his intentions,
with regard to the
study of dkai'Ery by j. s. sargent, r.a. work he had in hand,
112
fantasy and apparent irregularity of the composi- feeling for decorative contrivance accounts for the
tion the deep consideration of exact pattern is very zeal with which Mr. Sargent has thrown himself
strongly felt, and yet it is not obtrusive. No into the work which is being carried on at the
mechanical repetition or balancing of forms, no Boston Library. In the wonderful scheme of
conventional distribution of the colour masses, no adornment devised for that building a group of
laborious acquiescence with what are mis-called prominent artists is concerned, and to him has
the laws ot decoration, can be criticised as harming been assigned a very important share in the under-
the pictorial illusion by their over-accentuation of taking. That he should have been chosen may
the artistic mechanism, and yet the more the seem strange to people who are accustomed to
picture is examined the more appreciable becomes think of him only as a portrait-painter, and have
the skill with which the painter has managed his never troubled to search beneath the surface of his
work, and the taste with which he has perfected art to see what manner of man he really is. But
even the smallest details of his design. everyone who knows him well and realises what
The possession of this innate and instinctive are the moving principles of his practice will
appreciate the excel-
lence of the judgment
that selected a thinker
of such originality and
a designer with so
much invention to at-
tempt a piece of work
which gave him a real
chance of distinguish-
ing himself. The com-
mission was, perhaps,
something of an experi-
ment, but there was
little likelihood that
the result of it would
be anything but a suc-
cess of a very striking
and remarkable kind.
A success it most
surely has been, even
if it has not developed
in the direction that
must have been gene-
rally expected. From
a painter of modern
life, always keenly in
touch with the charac-
teristics of contempo-
rary existence, the
Lutiette, and Portion
of Ceiling, which ap-
peared in the Academy
Exhibition in 1894,
came as a distinct
surprise. This section
of the Boston decora-
tion was the first reve-
lation of his intentions,
with regard to the
study of dkai'Ery by j. s. sargent, r.a. work he had in hand,
112