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21 juin 2017

Dulwich hosts major exhibition of watercolours by John Singer Sargent

KEY_1 Loggia, View at the Generalife

John Singer Sargent, Loggia, View at the Generalife, c. 1912, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 39.4 x 53.2 cm,  Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections. Purchased in 1927, half the auction price met by Sir James Murray

LONDON.- Dulwich Picture Gallery presents the first major UK exhibition of watercolours by the Anglo-American artist, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), since 1918. 

A key selection of works from over 30 lenders, including The lady with the umbrella, 1911, on display in the UK for the first time, offer an alternative perspective on Sargent, demonstrating a technical brilliance and striking individuality. 

KEY_2 Blind Musicians

John Singer Sargent, Blind Musicians, 1912, watercolour on paper, on preliminary pencil, 39.4 x 53 cm, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections. Purchased in 1927,half the auction price met by Sir James Murray

‘Sargent: The Watercolours’ brings together 80 works from arguably Sargent’s greatest period of watercolour production between 1900 and 1918. Renowned as the leading portraitist of his generation, Sargent mastered the medium of watercolour during his painting expeditions to Southern Europe and the Middle East, where he developed a distinctive way of seeing and composing. Whilst these watercolours have often been dismissed as simple travel souvenirs, they were an integral part of Sargent’s artistic production. 

Arranged thematically, the exhibition showcases Sargent’s landscapes, architectural structures and figurative scenes. It will draw attention to the most radical aspects of his oeuvre, in particular his use of the close-up to focus attention on a specific motif, his unusual use of perspective and the arresting and dynamic poses of his figures. The show also serves as a startling reminder of Sargent’s mastery of the visual complexities of light, the effects of which are present in almost every one of his works. 

KEY_10 Bed of a Torrent_

John Singer Sargent, Bed of a Torrent, c. 1904, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 36 x 51cm, Royal Watercolour Society, London. Image © Justin Piperger

Richard Ormond, co-curator of the exhibition, said: “In Sargent’s watercolours we see his zest for life and his pleasure in the act of painting. The fluency and sensuality of his paint surfaces, and his wonderful command of light, never cease to astonish us. With this exhibition we hope to demonstrate Sargent’s mastery of the medium and the scale of his achievement”. 

Sargent practiced the art of watercolour from a young age and continued to use it throughout his career, his style developing in tandem with his work in oils. By 1900, aged 44 and at the height of his career, he had grown restless, seeking escape from the confines of his studio and the pressures of portrait commissions. Working en plein air, he explored subjects of his own choosing, travelling to remote spots where he could work undisturbed. For this purpose, he regularly turned to watercolour, a medium that allowed him to paint, rapidly and without much preparation, a scene that caught his eye.  

KEY_17 A Turkish Woman by a Stream

John Singer Sargent, A Turkish Woman by a Stream, c. 1907, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, with touches of body colour, 35.9 x 50.8 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum. Bequeathed by Miss Dorothy Barnard. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The show opens with some of the best examples of Sargent’s fragments and close-ups. Sargent rarely painted buildings as complete and coherent entities; his sliced angles and perspectives and the unorthodox viewpoints require the spectator to imagine their complete form. In Rome: An Architectural Study, c. 1906-7, Sargent records a corner of a building, concentrating on the effect of daylight on the stone using contrasting warm and cool tones. In The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, c. 1904-9, the domes of the great church are obscured by the rigging of ships in the canal so that they become part of a pictorial pattern. 

The show goes on to explore Sargent’s depictions of cities, in particular, his paintings of everyday life in Venice, which he often captures from canal level - the city seen from the gondola perspective. Works also depict the less glamorous side canals, with their narrow passageways, their strange geometries and the mysterious play of light and shade. Painting some of the most famous sites in other cities, Sargent only gives a glimpse of their grandeur, concentrating more on the pattern and form surrounding as in the earlier work, Constantinople, 1891, in which he depicts a strikingly horizontal view of the historic center of Istanbul. 

 

KEY_23 Italian sailing Vessels at Anchor

John Singer Sargent, Italian sailing Vessels at Anchor, c. 1904-07, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 35.2 x 50.3 cm, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Presented by Miss K. de Hochpied Larpent, 1943. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

After the turn of the twentieth-century, Sargent painted more landscapes than any other subject. His scenes are often unconventional, opting for closely cropped details rather than full, panoramic views. Sargent focused on form and surface pattern, particularly in his mountain landscapes such as Bed of a Torrent, c. 1904. He transforms mossy rocks and flowing brooks into a complex arrangement, rejecting distance and scale. Similar to photographic snapshots, his landscapes, with their informal compositions and abrupt cropping, capture a moment in time. 

The exhibition culminates with a selection of Sargent’s figurative paintings, including depictions of his travel companions, fellow artists and working people as in Group of Spanish Convalescent Soldiers, c. 1903. In many of these works Sargent rejects the primacy of the figure. In The lady with the umbrella, 1911, for example, his subject is foreshortened and contorted, an avoidance of the obviously pretty and picturesque.  

KEY_24 A Street in Spain

John Singer Sargent, A Street in Spain, c. 1880, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 23.8 x 32.1 cm, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Presented by Miss Mabel Price, 1935. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

he show has been curated by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, widely accepted as the UK reigning experts in this field. Richard Ormond is Sargent’s grand-nephew. He was previously director of the National Maritime Museum, London. Elaine Kilmurray is an art historian, author and curator. She has worked with Richard on numerous publications and co-curated exhibitions on Sargent’s work in London, Washington, D.C., Boston, Ferrara and Los Angeles. 

Loans come from UK institutions including Tate, The British Museum, The Fitzwilliam, The Imperial War Museum and The Ashmolean, alongside works rarely seen from numerous private collections. Key loans also come from European institutions; Museu de Montserrat, Abadia de Montserrat, Barcelona; the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon and the Petit Palais, Musee de Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated colour exhibition catalogue and features fascinating new research into Sargent’s watercolour oeuvre with lead essays from the curators.

KEY_25 A View between the Columns of a Tempietto

John Singer Sargent, Villa Borghese, Temple of Diana, c. 1906-07, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 35.2 x 50.3 cm, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Presented by Mrs Ormond, the artist's sister, 1937. Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

KEY_27 Rome An Architectural Study

John Singer Sargent, Rome: An Architectural Study, c. 1906-7, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 34.9 x 50.2 cm, Museums & Galleries, City of Bradford MDC

KEY_29 Spanish Fountain

John Singer Sargent, Spanish Fountain, 1912, watercolour on paper, overpreliminary pencil, 53.3 x 34.6cm, © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

KEY_30 Palma, Majorca

John Singer Sargent, Palma, Majorca, 1908,watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, with touches of body colour, 36.2 x 52.6 cm, © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

KEY_31 Highlanders Resting at the Front

John Singer Sargent, Highlanders Resting at the Front, 1918, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 34.3 cm x 53.5 cm, © Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

  • KEY_32 A Glacier Stream in the Alps

John Singer Sargent, A Glacier Stream in the Alps, c. 1909-11, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 33.3 x 49.5cm, Laing Art Gallery (Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums). Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne/Bridgeman Images

KEY_34 The lady with the umbrella

John Singer Sargent, The Lady with the Umbrella, 1911, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, with body colour, 65 x 54 cm, Museu de Montserrat. Donated by J. Sala Ardiz. Image © Dani Rovira

KEY_35 The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice_smaller

John Singer Sargent, The Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, c. 1904-9, watercolour on paper, over preliminarypencil, 36.7 x 53.8 cm, © Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon. Photo: Catarina Gomes Ferreira

KEY_42 The Fountain, Bologna 2

John Singer Sargent, The Fountain, Bologna, c. 1906, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, with touches of body colour, 36.8 x 53.3 cm, Private Collection

KEY_74 The Dogana, Statue of Fortune

John Singer Sargent, The Dogana, Statue of Fortune, c. 1909-11, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 48.3 cm x 34.9 cm, Private Collection

KEY_75 Pool in the Garden of La Granja

John Singer Sargent, Pool in the Garden of La Granja, c. 1903, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 30.2 cm x 45.7 cm, Private Collection

KEY_76 Group of Spanish Convalescent Soldiers

John Singer Sargent, Group of Spanish Convalescent Soldiers, c. 1903, watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, with body colour, 29.9 cm x 40.7 cm, Private Collection

 

Unknown photographer, Sargent painting a watercolour in the Simplon Pass

Unknown photographer, Sargent painting a watercolour in the Simplon Pass, c. 1910-11, Sargent Archive, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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