John Singer Sargent is best known for his elegant portraits and sparkling watercolors. Sargent in the Studio provides a look "behind the curtain" to reveal the working process of one of America's best known artists. Drawn from the Fogg's outstanding collection of works by Sargent, one of the largest and most significant groups in the world, the exhibition features drawings, sketchbooks, and oil sketches. Most of the objects in the exhibition came to the Fogg from the artist's sisters, Emily Sargent and Violet Ormond, who charged Sargent's executor, Thomas Fox, with the task of dispersing the contents of his studio after his death. Emily asked Fox to "remember that Violet and I want you to do what you think best with them, in the way of presenting them to any art school or schools you think that would like to have them and find them useful." The sisters were optimistic that the many working studies of a successful artist would best find a receptive audience in teaching institutions like the Fogg.

Study for Mme Gautreau (Mme X), 1943.316

The exhibition focuses on the surprising variety of the artist's work. Sargent's three monumental mural projects--The Boston Public Library (1890-1919), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1916-1925), and Widener Library, Harvard University (1921-1922)--are the cornerstone of Sargent's work in America. Although he was often derided for his "facile" execution, this impression is belied by close examination of the thousands of preparatory drawings for his mural projects alone. The mural studies form the centerpiece of the exhibition, and range from barely legible preliminary composition studies to sequences of highly finished charcoal sheets to swiftly rendered oil sketches. "The Doctrine of the Trinity," a large fragment of the architectural model built in preparation for the Boston Public Library murals, will be freshly conserved for the exhibition, bringing together the expertise of Harvard conservators and curators. Quickly painted on roughly-finished planks, it reveals Sargent's experimentation with relief elements in gilded paper. A plaster model for the Crucifix which overlays the painted panels will also be conserved and on display.

Sargent drew incessantly, and his sketchbooks, many small enough to fit comfortably into the pocket of his waistcoat, functioned as a kind of outdoor studio. A selection of the Fogg's thirty-three sketchbooks, rarely on display, reveals the precocious artist as a teenager, travelling through Europe with his parents and recording the local landscape. Later sketchbooks include quick studies for portraits, architectural studies, and even doodles and caricatures. The artist's interest in works by the old masters, nurtured in his youth, never faltered, and the sketchbooks testify to his lifelong respect for his predecessors. Individual drawings will include two studies for Sargent's portrait of Madame Gautreau (Madame X) and a selection of figure studies and nudes. A group of powerful nude studies, taken from a large album assembled by the artist, attest to Sargent's remarkable facility in the rich medium of charcoal. Sargent's brushes, paints, and a palette will also be on display.

See our website Sargent at Harvard: www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sargent/, which will be revised for the exhibition.

Scholarly Programming - All in 1999

GALLERY TALKS
Saturday, June 12
Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketches
Kerry Schauber, research assistant, Drawing Department, and Miriam Stewart, assistant curator, Drawing Department, Fogg, 11:30 a.m.

Saturday, July 17
Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketches
Melinda Linderer, collections manager, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, and 1995-96 Philip A. and Lynn Straus Intern, Drawing Department, Fogg, 11:30 a.m.

Saturday, August 14
Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketches
Melinda Linderer, collections manager, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, and 1995-96 Philip A. and Lynn Straus Intern, Drawing Department, Fogg, 11:30 a.m.

Sunday, August 29
Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketches
Kerry Schauber, research assistant, Drawing Department, and Miriam Stewart, assistant curator, Drawing Department, Fogg, 2 p.m.

SYMPOSIUM
Public Art for Boston: John Singer Sargent's Mural Projects
Friday, June 25, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Boston Public Library

The summer of 1999 might well be called the summer of Sargent in Cambridge and Boston. In addition to the exhibition Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketchesat the Fogg (June 10-September 5), several other exhibitions of the work of John Singer Sargent will be on display throughout the Boston area: John Singer Sargentat the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (June 27-September 26); Sargent in Context at the Boston Public Libraryat the Boston Public Library (June 7-September 30); and Sargent: The Late Landscapesat the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (May 21-September 26).

The Boston area is home to Sargent's three great mural projects: The Triumph of Religionat the Boston Public Library (1890-1919); the mythological decorations The Windsat the Museum of Fine Arts (1916-1925); and The Coming of the Americansand Death and Victoryat Harvard's Widener Library (1921-1922).

The Harvard University Art Museums, together with the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, will present a day-long celebration of these major public works. The day will begin with a series of slide lectures exploring the mural projects from both an art historical and a conservation perspective. Speakers include Jane Dini, University of California at Santa Barbara; Pamela Hatchfield, conservator, Department of Objects Conservation and Scientific Research, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Gianfranco Pocobene, associate conservator of paintings, Straus Center for Conservation, Harvard University Art Museums; Carol Troyen, associate curator of paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Lydia Vagts, assistant conservator of paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Mary Crawford Volk, independent scholar. (Sackler lecture hall; 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)

During the afternoon, participants will be given an opportunity to independently view the exhibition at the Fogg, the Widener Library murals, and the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (tickets to the exhibition at the MFA will be provided to participants following the morning lectures at the Sackler). At 5:30 p.m., Sally Promey, associate professor of American Art, University of Maryland, will present a lecture entitled Painting (Religious) Privacy in Publicat the Boston Public Library, followed by a reception at 6:30 p.m. amidst the murals in the Library.

SPECIAL PROGRAMS - All in 1999

Exhibition Celebration
Thursday, June 24
Fogg; 5-8 p.m.

Please join us in celebration of the exhibition Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketches. Trevor Fairbrother, Deputy Director for Art and the John and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern Art, Seattle Art Museum, will present a slide lecture entitled "Sargent and Men" at 6 p.m. in the Norton lecture hall of the Fogg. Private viewing of the exhibition and a reception in the Fogg Courtyard will be offered from 5 to 8 p.m.

$15 for members; $20 for guests; Please call the Friends' Office at (617) 495-4544.

Concert and Garden Party
Sunday, July 11
Fogg and Adolphus Busch Hall and garden; 5-7:30 p.m
It's the turn of the century in London, it's summertime, and it's Sargent! A contemporary of John Singer Sargent once wrote of the artist that Sargent's "musical judgements, sympathies and activities welled up instinctively out of his rich musical inner nature...To hear Sargent play the piano was indeed a treat, for his pianism had the manliness and richness of his painting...He delighted especially in playing his favourite, Fauré, and in struggling with the fantastic difficulties of Albeniz's 'Iberia'..."

Please join us on this special occasion as we glimpse Sargent's world of music, art and leisure. Beginning at 5 p.m., enjoy a summer evening's cocktail in the garden at Adolphus Busch Hall before a short stroll to a private viewing of the exhibition Sargent in the Studio: Drawings, Sketchbooks, and Oil Sketchesat the Fogg. At 6:30 p.m., husband and wife duo, Evan Hirsch and Sally Pinkas, will recreate Sargent's celebration of the music of Gabriel Fauré with a presentation of Fauré's Nocturne for solo piano and Dolly Suitefor piano four-hands. Please note that the Fogg will open at 5:30 p.m.

$15 for members; $20 for guests; Please call the Friends' Office at (617) 495-4544.

Sargent in the Studiois organized by Miriam Stewart, Assistant Curator of Drawings, and Kerry Schauber, Research Assistant, Drawing Department.

Sargent in the Studiois mounted in conjunction with the exhibitions John Singer Sargent, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (June 27 through September 26, 1999) and Sargent: The Late Landscapes, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (May 21 through September 26, 1999).

Press Release.