John Singer Sargent
Above: “Lake on Purple,” one of my paintings inspired by Sargent
Henry James (1843 – 1916)
“In an altogether exceptional degree does Sargent give us the sense that an intention and the art of carrying it out are for him one and the same thing… In Mr. Sargent’s case the process by which the object seen resolves itself into the object pictured is extraordinarily immediate. It is as if painting were pure tact of vision, a simple manner of feeling.” Henry James
Henry James wrote an early assessment of John Singer Sargent’s art, which was published as an article in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, October 1887. You can access the article in print here. I recorded this article for the 62nd volume of the LibriVox Short Nonfiction Collection. You can access my recording here.
I am a great fan of Sargent’s watercolors, and studying them has helped me a lot in matters of composition for my own paintings. His is a talent I greatly envy! My painting above was inspired by Sargent’s “Loch Moidaart, Inverness-shire, which he painted in 1896.
by John Singer Sargent 1896
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