John Singer Sargent: Dressing His Sitters

"Pailleron Children" by John Singer Sargent

"John Singer Sargent had very decided views as to what clothes suited particular sitters best. If for some reason they preferred their own choice it was always to the detriment of the picture. When Sir William Osler proposed to wear his Doctor's gown, Sargent said at once:

'No, I can't paint you in that. It won't do. I know all about that red. You know they gave me a degree down there and I've got one of those robes. Musingly he went on, 'I've left it on the roof in the rain. I've buried it in the garden. It's no use. The red is as red as ever. The stuff is too good. It won't fade. Now if you could get a Dublin degree!'

The picture was painted in Tite Street. In the background is the horseman by Greco, familiar to those who visited his studio. None of his work excels this picture for solemnity and dignity."

The Pailleron Children: "In her book of reminiscences, Marie-Louise, who became a prominent author in her own right, recalled the experience of posing for her portrait as a 'catastrophe' requiring eighty-three sittings carried out in a warlike atmosphere. Against her wishes, Sargent selected her costume, including a cream-white silk dress that allowed for soft shadows, and insisted that she exchange her silk stockings for cotton, as he preferred a matte surface. The artist and sitter also battled over the arrangement of her hair and the placement of the torque bracelet and brooch. In the end, Sargent channeled the girl's anger into his painting, creating a wonderfully tension-filled, disquieting portrayal of the Pailleron children dominated by the willful gaze of young Marie-Louise."

W. Graham Robertson: Another subject that Sargent sought out to paint was the young W. Graham Robertson, a gifted illustrator and theater designer who moved in London's elite art circles. When Robertson learned of Sargent's interest in painting him, he asked a mutual friend, the actress Ada Rehan (who would also be painted by Sargent), "Wants me. But good gracious why?" She responded, "He says you are so paintable: that the lines of your long overcoat—and the dog … he was tremendously enthusiastic.'

During lengthy sittings held in the summer, Robertson complained about having to pose in the heavy Chesterfield overcoat shown in the portrait. To that Sargent responded, 'But the coat is the picture.' The result was a great masterpiece of the Aesthetic movement. The thin young man with a distracted look is wrapped in the long black coat, bearing an elegant air, and holding a jade-topped cane, with his white poodle at his feet.

Jane de Glehn: The stylish figure of Jane de Glehn is featured in 'In a Garden, Corfu.' She wears an elegant white dress, which Sargent takes great care in rendering, along with the voluminous pale blue skirt that takes up much of the foreground of the painting and which the artist asked de Glehn to wear. A second friend, Eliza Wedgewood, whose head is seen at the lower right of the composition, later recalled, 'I used to read literally for hours, Trevelyan's 'Garibaldi' aloud to Jane de Glehn whilst John painted her in his robin's egg taffeta skirt …' Sargent had evidently brought the skirt from London with him on his travels in Europe for use in his figure paintings."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "John Sargent" by Evan Charteris and 'Sargent's Theatrics: Dressing His Friends" by Elizabeth Mantin Kornhauser.)