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#0127
John S. Sargent, R.A'.
" A JAVANESE DANCER T' BY J. S. SARGENT, R.A.
that he had made public ; and it was, at first
sight, so out of keeping with what was popularly
supposed to be the Sargent tradition that the
ordinary type of picture lover was breathless with
amazement Here was the vivid portraitist, the
minute observer of living men, reverting to the
archaicisms of a style that was in vogue many
centuries ago, and playing recklessly with the
fantastic eccentricities of Byzantine art. Ihit
the more closely the design was examined the
more excellent appeared to be the artist's sense of
the fitness of things. He had been studying the
114
fundamental principles that made the Byzantines
the greatest of decorators, just as he had mastered
the essential elements by which the realism of
Velasquez is distinguished above that of any other
artist or school : and his study had been so thorough
that he was handling decorative devices in a spirit
of freedom and originality almost as energetic as
that which he showed in his oil paintings. He
had brought his archaicisms down to date, and had
given them a fresh lease of existence, so that, with
roots fixed firmly in the tomb of an art that died
in bygone ages, they could blossom again among
"AN EGYPTIAN GIRL"
BY (. S. SARGENT, R.A.
" A JAVANESE DANCER T' BY J. S. SARGENT, R.A.
that he had made public ; and it was, at first
sight, so out of keeping with what was popularly
supposed to be the Sargent tradition that the
ordinary type of picture lover was breathless with
amazement Here was the vivid portraitist, the
minute observer of living men, reverting to the
archaicisms of a style that was in vogue many
centuries ago, and playing recklessly with the
fantastic eccentricities of Byzantine art. Ihit
the more closely the design was examined the
more excellent appeared to be the artist's sense of
the fitness of things. He had been studying the
114
fundamental principles that made the Byzantines
the greatest of decorators, just as he had mastered
the essential elements by which the realism of
Velasquez is distinguished above that of any other
artist or school : and his study had been so thorough
that he was handling decorative devices in a spirit
of freedom and originality almost as energetic as
that which he showed in his oil paintings. He
had brought his archaicisms down to date, and had
given them a fresh lease of existence, so that, with
roots fixed firmly in the tomb of an art that died
in bygone ages, they could blossom again among
"AN EGYPTIAN GIRL"
BY (. S. SARGENT, R.A.