His childhood as a somewhat nomadic expatriate trained the American painter John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856-London, 1925) to become a tireless traveller.
Spain was a destination that especially seduced him.
He traveled to the country seven times between 1879 and 1912. He toured the Iberian Peninsula from end to end at a time when getting around was not so easy.
Those trips, which included the study of the work of Velázquez, Goya and El Greco, left a deep mark on his painting.
The exhibition
Sargent and Spain
,
recently opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, reviews this fascination like never before.
Some of his masterpieces, such as
El jaleo
or
Las hijas de Edward Darley Boit
(also known as
Las meninas de Sargent),
draw from the Spanish source of inspiration.
Sargent is considered the best American portraitist of the nineteenth to twentieth century.
The exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art in collaboration with the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts (where it will travel later) brings together 132 watercolor oil paintings, drawings and photographs that cover the painter's relationship with Spain.
Copies and interpretations of works by great Spanish masters, costumbrista scenes, portraits, landscapes and religious motifs are mixed in the museum rooms with some sketches by the artist and photographs of the time.
'Granadas, Majorca' (1908), oil on canvas by John Singer Sargent.
"Sargent and Spain
examines, for the first time, how Sargent engaged with that country, in all its diversity, and represented it in paintings, drawings and photographs," says Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, in the catalog of the exhibition, which will be in Washington until January 2, 2023.
“His teacher and mentor Carolus-Duran told him: 'Go to Madrid to study Velázquez, Velázquez and Velázquez.'
That is the beginning of the story,” said Sarah Cash, curator of the exhibition along with Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, on Tuesday.
"Sargent fell in love with Spanish dance and music and also painted its architecture, its gardens, its landscapes, its culture and its people," she added.
The visit opens with Sargent's immersion in Spanish painting.
In the wake of his admiration for Manet and his masters, he visited the Prado Museum and copied works by Velázquez, Goya and El Greco in reduced size.
Present in the exhibition are, among others, his interpretations of
Las Meninas, La fragua de Vulcano, Las hilanderas
or
La Trinidad.
It is a pity that
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit,
from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is not part of the exhibition.
A few years ago, the meninas of both painters met at the Prado Museum.
In any case, the influence of Velázquez is clearly seen in the dialogue established in the room between his copy of
Las Meninas
and his
Venetian Interior.
Sargent y España
then dives into Spanish popular music and culture.
Portraits of Carmen Dauset Moreno,
La Carmencita,
the composition
El baile español
and numerous studies and sketches for
El jaleo
(the other masterpiece that is missing for the exhibition to be complete) show how music and dance infected Sargent on his trips to Andalusia, although I take from those visits a perhaps somewhat topical and romantic portrait.
In the interest of political correctness, some works have been retitled to avoid the word gypsy.
Thus, for example, gypsy dancers have become Roma (from the original title
Spanish Gypsy Dancer
to
Spanish Roma Dancer)
and
Campamento gitano
is now
Spanish Roma Housing.
'Sierra Nevada' (1912), oil on canvas by John Singer Sargent.Photography by Robin Maggs - Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.
(© *********/Amgueddfa Cymru - N)
The following sections are a journey back in time to the Spain of the time, which in part no longer exists and in part is still the same.
Sargent was recreated in the architecture of the Alhambra and the Generalife in Granada, in the fountains of Aranjuez and La Granja, in the church of Santa María La Blanca in Toledo or in the streets of Santiago de Compostela and Camprodón (Girona).
But he also painted the landscapes of Sierra Nevada, gardens, costumbrista scenes and varied portraits.
He put his easel in a stable in Cuenca, in the hospital in Granada, in front of the house of a gypsy family or groups of soldiers
The island of Mallorca especially captivated him.
He painted the cathedral of Palma, landscapes of the island, its olive trees, its flowers, its pumpkins and its animals.
The light and color of his watercolors of fishing boats bring him closer to the Mediterranean Sorolla.
The trees full of pomegranates, which in Mallorca he painted in oils and watercolors, he later imported into the imposing series of murals of
The Triumph of Religion
of the Boston Public Library.
'White Ships' (1908), watercolour, by John Singer Sargent.
A contemporary of Joaquín Sorolla (they dedicated paintings to each other), he has some parallels with the Spanish: he was like him a successful painter in his time, then he was somewhat underestimated with the arrival of the 20th century avant-gardes and later vindicated.
Both had the determination to achieve a modern painting from the naturalist tradition.
Sargent was a great portraitist of the American and European bourgeoisie, as shown by some of his masterpieces, such as
Madame X,
preserved in the New York Metropolitan.
Sargent, an American who never settled in his country but who valued his American citizenship, traveled back and forth to Spain over three decades, first as a young artist, then as an established and sought-after painter, worldly and cosmopolitan. , but again and again fascinated by the country, to which he usually came from London or Paris.
The exhibition closes with a section dedicated to his works of religious inspiration.
His imagery relates those oil sketches, studies and drawings with the aforementioned murals of
The Triumph of Religion.
Taking advantage of the pull of the exhibition, a whole series of cultural activities have been organized together with the Spanish Embassy in Washington, including conferences, a cycle of documentaries, films and a concert that bring the Spanish culture that fascinated the painter.
"Sargent fell in love with Spain", summarized the embassy's cultural adviser, Miguel Albero.
Sargent and Spain is open from October 3, 2022 to February 2, 2023 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and from February 11 to May 14, 2023 at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts.
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