Fashioned by Sargent

Painting Fashion

Author: Erica E. Hirshler, Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, James Finch, Pamela A. Parmal, Paul Fisher, Frances Fowle, Dominic Green, Rebecca Hellen, Stephanie L. Herdrich and Elaine Kilmurray

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Description

A lavish exploration of Sargent's relationship to fashion, featuring exquisite costumes from the Gilded Age

"The coat is the picture," John Singer Sargent explained to his fellow artist Graham Robertson in the summer of 1894, tugging a heavy garment ever more tightly around his sitter's slender figure. More attentive to what he hoped to accomplish as a painter than he was to the dictates of contemporary fashion, Sargent often chose what his sitters would wear. Even when they came to him dressed in the latest mode, he frequently ignored or simplified the details, concentrating on texture, drape and the way fabrics responded to light. Exploiting dress as an integral ingredient of his own artistry, Sargent used clothes to proclaim his own aesthetic agenda while simultaneously establishing his sitters' social position, profession, gender identity and nationality.
Fashioned by Sargent explores the complicated relationship of painting and dress through lavish reproductions of Sargent's works alongside exquisite costumes of the period--including garments actually worn by his sitters. Essays by leading scholars illuminate topics such as portraits and performance, gender expression and the New Woman, and the pull of history and the excitement of new ideas, offering readers new insights into masterworks by a beloved American artist.
The international art star of the Gilded Age, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born in Italy to American parents, trained in Paris and worked on both sides of the Atlantic. Sargent is best known for his dramatic and stylish portraits, but he was equally active as a landscapist, muralist and watercolor painter.

Critic Reviews

Fashion, in this show, is most interesting as an expression of Sargent's sensitivity to difference -- his flouting of aristocratic conventions, gender norms, and much else.--Karen Rosenberg "The New York Times"
From prim pansies who look as though they belong in an Edith Wharton story to boldly androgynous Vernon Lee, Sargent used fashion as a way of telling a story--of playing with artifice and pinning it into new forms.--Francesca Peacock "Prospect Magazine"
To see portraiture done this way -- working with a loaded brush here, a dry, scudding touch there; with this particular pink placed in relation to that green and with this wristy, rhythmic ease -- is akin to watching a great conductor before an orchestra in her thrall.--Sebastian Smee "The Washington Post"
With gorgeous images and accessible text, this exhibition catalogue is highly recommended for audiences interested in fine art in relation to fashion.--Sandra Rothenberg "Library Journal"
Delves into sartorial signifiers of ancestral and national power, as well as Sargent's subtle allusions to past masters including Rembrandt and Velázquez.--Stephanie Sporn "Vogue"
Sargent, while swathing his striving subjects in luxurious-looking layers of satin, velvet, and organza, never failed to reveal their essential humanity.--Karen Rosenberg "The New York Times: Arts"
Adjustments were subtle but often added to the complexity of the portraits, bucking convention or imbuing the sitters with deeper intrigue, intelligence, or emotion.--Sara James Mnookin "WWD"
Working at a time when the placement of a single shoulder strap could create a scandal, John Singer Sargent was conscious about the way fashion factored into his portraits and, in the case of "Madame X," how it reflected the personality and respectability of his high-society subjects.--Lauren Messman "The New York Times: Arts"