Rossinievers, Switzerland, September 16, 1861
"My dear Mother, Johnny is well and is as fond as ever of drawing. I send you a drawing of a bunch of 'Johnny-Jump-ups' which he took from Nature the other day. And he is a remarkably well-behaved little boy...
Johnny is pronounced to be too big for petticoats, and he is accordingly to have constructed for him in Geneva a suit of 'knickerbockers', a sort of Zouave dress, consisting of loose trowsers extending halfway between the knee and the ankle, caught in tightly around the leg below, and a blouse or jacket. He will also have pockets allowed him.
Little Emily, by whom I am sitting in the garden, or the sunny side of the house, desires me to say that she will draw a little bird for you when she can do so as well as 'little brother Johnny.' She is taking to knitting and crochet, at which she works a little every day.
Both the children take a lesson in spelling daily, but I find that it is hard work for them. I dare say Grandma would have made much more out of them than I have succeeded in doing. Johnny particularly is much more fond of climbing and kite-flying than he is of spelling, and, in truth, I rather like him all the better for it, and believe it will be better for him so I don't push him too much.
Always most affectionately yours, F.W. Sargent"
Florence, May 20, 1871
"My dear father, John has been studying very assiduously all winter, and his teacher gives a very good account of his progress and general behavior. A friend of ours, a Germanico-American Artist of reputation, has invited him to spend the summer with him in the Tyrol and the neighboring highlands where they will sketch together, fish, etc.
It is an excellent opportunity for the boy who is very fond of drawing, and who seems to be more desirous of an Artist's life as a profession than of any other vocation, and we intend to let him follow his bent. We shall keep near him so as to be able to get at him at any time in case of need. He is a very good boy, so far as I know, and as compared with other boys.
On the sketching tour John wrote back to his father in August saying that when the weather did not permit painting, the artist friend and he go trout fishing. He said that he caught eight fine trout, but that a cat ran off with two of the largest of the lot!
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| From John S. Sargent's Sketchbook on that trip |
Paris, May 19, 1874
"We came on here especially to see if we could not find greater advantages for John in the matter of his artistic studies than we found in Florence. But we have not as yet had time to attend to that subject; however, we shall address ourselves seriously to work in a day or two..."
Paris, May 30, 1874
"We have placed John in the Studio of a rising painter, who takes a limited number of pupils and looks after their work. He has his own private Studio, and another Studio for his pupils from whom he received no compensation beyond what is necessary to defray the expenses connected with this public studio; Each pupil pays twenty francs a month, $4.00. There are only fifteen or twenty pupils, most of them English and American. They work here from 7 o'clock until noon, and have the rest of the day free. The boy seems to think that he has got into a good place and works industriously. He is obliged to get up not later than 5 o'cl in order to get his breakfast & arrive at his ground by 7 1/2 a.m. He works with great patience and industry and bids fair to succeed. I think his new master was much pleased with the results of the boy's labor hitherto."
Paris, March 1, 1877
"John has his daily work cut out for him fortunately, and performs it with good will. We do not see a great deal of him. He leaves the house at 7 1/2 or 8 o'cl. in the morning, excepting on Sunday, and returns to dinner at 5 1/2 or 7 o'cl. in the evening. He has just completed his first serious work, his, as yet 'opus magnum', a portrait of a young lady, half-length, in a sitting posture.
All his friends amongst the young artists like it very much, and to my uneducated eye it is - particularly if one considers that it is his first attempt at a serious, finished work, a very creditable and promising one. It is intended for the Salon, the great annual art exhibition of Paris, for which all the artist of the Capitol send contributions which are passed upon partly by a jury of artists partly selected by the Minister of Fine Arts of France and partly by the corps of artists themselves - in short it is the Olympic or Isthmian games of France for artists. John does not yet know if his picture will be admitted to the Salon, but his friends and his master, who is one of the prominent artists of France, entertain no doubt about it.
Another letter
"We feel bound to pay John a visit every Spring, to see how he is getting on. And on this occasion we were very much gratified with the progress he had evidently made during the year. He sent to the Salon a portrait of his teacher Carolus-Duran, which was not only [praised] by his artists - and other friends, but also by the Paris Critics and the public, to be one of the best portraits exposed at this Spring's Exhibition. There was always a little crowd around it, and overheard constantly remarks in favor of its excellence.
But as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the best, or one of the best evidences of a portrait's success is the receiving by the artist of commissions to execute others. And John received six such evidences from French people. He was very busy during the two months we were in Paris, and he is now about going to the vicinity of Chambray to paint the portrait of the wife of a gentleman whose portrait he was finishing when we left him. After this, he is going to Spain on a sketching and studying tour, and in the Autumn he thinks of crossing into Africa, to Tangiers, Algiers etc. I hope he will bring back with him some good studies, etc."
Chateau d'Oex, Switerland, Aug. 20, 1877 or 78
"John is still at Cancale, on the coast of Brittany - the famous oyster garden of France, where he has been all the month of June and July and up to this day - for I suppose he left Cancale this morning, or will do so this evening, for Paris, prior to spending a short time with us before going into his winter campaign at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He has been very well all summer, and has been busy in making drawings and sketches of the fishermen and fisherwomen for pictures. We hope to see him in the course of a week."
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| "Oyster Gatherers of Cancale" |
Cadenabbia, Lake of Como, June 17, 1884: "John is just now in London, where he has some commissions for portraits to execute and is very well. He talks of going to Spain later on in the season, where he hopes to find some subjects for pictures. Spain affords more such suggestions than any other European country (of central Europe, at all events) and it is less visited than most countries and offers more that is novel and picturesque at the same time, baronial-looking beggars, weird-looking gipsies and smugglers and dancers and peasants, all in their quaint and old time costumes, together with bull-fights and brigands, etc., etc."
* The Smithsonian Archives of American Art collection of Fitzwilliam Sargent's letters: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/f-w-sargent-papers-8421
* Collection of John Singer Sargent letters in the archive at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: http://www.mfa.org/collections/john-singer-sargent-archive/letters
