John Singer Sargent: Teaching at the Royal Academy, Pt. 2

"Mrs. Edward Darley Boit"
by John Singer Sargent

Mr. Haley continues with his description of John Singer Sargent's instruction at the Royal Academy: "In connection with the painting, the same principles maintained, 'Painting was an interpretation of tone. Through the medium of colour drawn with the brush.' 'Use yourself to a large brush.' 'Do not starve your palette.' 'Accurately place your masses with the charcoal.' 'Then lay in the background' about half an inch over the border of the adjoining tones, true as possible, then lay in the mass of hair, recovering the drawing and fusing the tones with the background, and overlapping the flesh of the forehead, then for the face lay in hold by a middle flesh tone, light on the left side and dark on the shadow side, always recovering the drawing and most carefully fusing the flesh into the background, painting flesh into background and background into flesh, until the exact quality is obtained, both in colour and tone the whole resembling a wig maker's block. 

Then follows the most marked and characteristic accents of the feature in place and tone and drawing as accurate as possible, painting deliberately into wet ground, testing your work by repeatedly standing well back, viewing it as a whole, a very important thing. After this take up the subtler tones which express the retiring planes of the head, temples, chin, nose and cheeks with neck, then the still more subtle drawing of mouth and eyes, fusing tone into tone all the time, till finally with deliberate touch the highlights are laid in. This occupies the first sitting and should the painting not be satisfactory, the whole is ruthlessly fogged by brushing together, the object being not to allow any parts well done, to interfere with that principle of oneness, or unity of every part. The brushing together engendered an appetite to attack the problem afresh at every sitting, each attempt resulting in a more complete visualization in the mind. The process is repeated until the canvas is completed.

Sargent would press home the fact, that the subtleties of paint must be controlled by continually viewing the work from a distance 'Stand back - get well away - and you will realize the great danger there is of overstating a tone - keep the thing as a whole in your mind. Tones so subtle as not to be detected on close acquaintance can only be adjusted by this means.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "John Sargent" by Evan Charteris.)