Customer Reviews

Sargent's Women

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I couldn't believe my eyes that Adelson Galleries has done an excellent job in displaying the portraits and sketches of the women Sargent painted throughout his life. They are breathtaking and pleasant to behold!

Sargent is one of several artists who truly love women and the way they look. He paint them as they are and didn't flatter them with false ideas of beauty. He broke the conventional mode of beauty by painting them as they are and took in account their personalities, lifestyles, and climates. His works included many women of color as well as upper class British, French, and American women and those in between. His paintings of his mother and sisters were well-done and documented. He's one guy who loves women the way they are.

This book contains many never before seen paintings of Capri, Spanish, Gypsy, and Venetian women, the women of his family, Madame Gautreau(Madame X, as she is known today), etc.

Here's my take on some of the ladies Sargent painted:

Judith Gautier: A muse and an art fanatic like her friend JSS and composer Richard Wagner's best friend and more. She's a true bohemian in my honest opinion.

Violet Sargent: His favorite younger sister. He painted her throughout her life since she was little.

Madame Amelie Gautreau(Madame X): His desire to paint the lady led to controversy that resulted in her ostracism and his exile from Paris for life. He left a portrait of a very sophisticated woman in a black gown.

Rosina Ferrara: His ultimate Capri dream girl, his inspiration! I could easily picture Chilli from the hip hop girl group TLC as Rosina and Rosina Ferrara of 19th Century Capri as Chilli. They both exotic beauties 100 years apart. Both of them bear uncanny resemblance to one another as well. Well, in some of Sargent's paintings, but not all.

Please get this book, it's excellent in its presentation of inspiring and interesting women he painted during his artistic career. Let's give Sargent his props by doing so.

What a painter! What a life! This is an excellent book! Whether you are a painter (I am) or a lover of incredibly vivid and excellently anatomically correct figures, painted with all the dash of a virtuoso artist of the first magnitude, Sargent is the man, and this is a good starter book for enjoying his work at a bargain basement price.

Between the mid-Victorian era through the art deco era, Sargent followed a different drummer. He was and was not a part of impressionism, he was and was not a part of a softened version of dramatic Romanticism, he was and was not the leading exponent of splashing color and slashing, bold brush strokes, ala, Brangwyn and Sorolla. His art sang above the heads of the poor meager critics, who ignored his brilliant brush work and perfect atmospheric perfection and the delightfully lovely women he painted and the sensual and alluring Décolletage his talent dispalyed so alluringly, only to say he was a painter of portraits which highly flattered his clients.

In his era and still, only a few were even close to his giftedness. The names of the critics who Gossiped about his romaticizing and flattering his clients, by adding beauty they did not possess, and pandering to the wealthiest of the wealthy-presidents, Courtesans, famous beauties, actresses, billionaires and their gorgeous wives and daughters, Sargent was the portrait artist of the upper classes, but his masterful control of quick slashing, bold brush stroke, brilliant light and colorful scenes, as well as his fluid handling of fabrics, like satin, silk, velvet, were unmatched save for Boldini. Buy it if you love brilliant art work at a bargain price. You won't regret it.