This magnificent book is the first volume of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the works in oil, watercolor, and pastel of the beloved painter John Singer Sargent. This volume catalogues portraits by Sargent from 1874, when he began his training in Paris, and covers pictures painted while he was establishing his reputation in Paris, during his early years in England, and on his first professional visit to America in 1887. Volume two will record portraits painted from 1890 until the end of the artist’s career. The entire catalogue raisonné will bring together nearly 600 portraits, some 1,600 subject pictures and landscapes, and three mural cycles. The early portraits in this book range from private images of Sargent’s family and friends to studies of writers and fellow artists and formal portraits of Parisian celebrities and patrons in France, England, and America. These include his most controversial work, Madame Gautreau, and studies of some of the major artistic figures of the day: Claude Monet, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ellen Terry in her role as Lady Macbeth. Each work is catalogued in depth, with a biographical account of the sitter, a discussion of the contemporary context of the painting, and a detailed provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Almost all of the paintings are shown, mostly in color, including some that have never been reproduced before. The fruit of some sixteen years of research, this valuable reference provides a broad and comprehensive view of Sargent’s art. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

John Singer Sargent, Complete Paintings, Volume 1: The Early Portraits

Arts & Photography

Kilmurray, Elaine

Ormond, Richard

History & Criticism

Yale University Press/Paul Mellon Centre

This gorgeous book is the second volume of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the work of the American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). It comprises over one-hundred and fifty formal portraits and portrait sketches in oil and watercolor that he painted between 1889 and 1900. The catalogued works have been grouped into chronological sections, each with its own introduction to set the particular group in context. In addition, an overall introduction places Sargent in the context of European portraiture of the past and of his own time. Each work is documented in depth: entries include traditional data about the painting or watercolor; details of the work’s provenance, exhibition history and bibliography; a short biography of the sitter; a discussion of the circumstances in which the work was created; and a critical discussion of its subject matter, style, and significance in Sargent’s career. With very few exceptions, all the works are reproduced in color. There is also an illustrated inventory of Sargent’s studio props and accessories and a cross-referenced checklist of the portraits in which they appear.

John Singer Sargent: Portraits of the 1890s

Adelson, Warren

Paul Mellon Centre

All the exquisite portraits Sargent painted from 1900 to his death in 1925, along with the essential details about each work and its subject This sumptuous book is the third volume of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the work of the American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Comprising over two hundred portraits and portrait sketches in oil and watercolor painted between 1900 and the artist’s death in 1925, this book completes the trilogy of portrait volumes. The catalogued works have been grouped into two chronological sections, each with an introduction that sets the particular group in context. There is also a section of undated portraits and an appendix listing previously unrecorded works. Each work is documented in depth: entries include traditional data about the painting or watercolor; details of the work’s provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography; a short biography of the sitter; a discussion of the circumstances in which the work was created; and a critical discussion of its subject matter, style, and significance in Sargent’s career. Most of the works are reproduced in color. There is also an illustrated inventory of Sargent’s studio props and accessories and a cross-referenced checklist of the portraits in which they appear.

John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits

Yale University Press

From 1874 to 1882, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) produced more than 200 paintings and water-colors aside from portraiture, including figures in landscape settings, architectural studies, seascapes, subject paintings, and studies after old masters. From powerful studies of models in Paris in the mid-1870s to compelling paintings set in Venice in the early 1880s, the works published in this volume of the catalogue raisonné show the variety of his aesthetic responses. He worked in the studio and en plein air, travelling widely during the eight years covered in this volume and painting in Paris, Brittany, Capri, Spain, North Africa, and Venice. This is the first time that Sargent’s early work has been mapped so comprehensively. With very few exceptions, this beautifully produced book illustrates all the pictures under discussion in color. Each painting, including several which have never been published before, is documented in depth with full provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography, and in many cases new information is provided. The volume also reproduces a wealth of Sargent’s preliminary and related drawings and of comparative works by other artists.

John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1874-1882; Complete Paintings: Volume IV

Throughout his career―and particularly in the period from 1898 to 1913―John Singer Sargent painted the spectacular architecture and scenes of everyday life in Venice, as he sat alongside the Grand Canal or in a gondola in the sleepy side canals. This lavishly illustrated book presents all the luminous masterworks that Sargent completed during that fertile fifteen-year period: oils and watercolors that reveal his taste for the Renaissance, Baroque, and high style in art and architecture as they were seen in the city’s unique light.
The book reproduces and documents 141 works, including several that are published for the first time. An authoritative essay explores the aesthetics of Sargent’s Venetian work, places it in the context of his oeuvre as a whole, explains Sargent’s relationships with his patrons in Venice, and discusses the exhibitions and marketing of this work in London and New York. The book also provides a map of Venice marking every known location that Sargent painted and displays dozens of contemporary color photographs of the sites.

John Singer Sargent: Venetian Figures and Landscapes 1898-1913: Complete Paintings: Volume VI

The fifth volume of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné encompasses a remarkably productive span in the beloved American painter’s life. The young artist moved from Paris to London during this period and successfully ignited his career as a portraitist, and this time also marked his experimentation with Impressionist techniques. These pages contain the first detailed account of Sargent’s relationship with Claude Monet, including letters—most published for the first time here—from the artist to the great Impressionist. This exquisitely illustrated volume also covers the period when Sargent journeyed to Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Spain, North Africa, and Italy in search of inspiration for a mural cycle commissioned by the Boston Public Library. The works he painted as source material included here stand in stark contrast to the sensuous, painterly exercises of the early and mid-1880s, underlining his versatility and artistic reach. 
As in the previous volumes in this series, the images in this book are reproduced in full color and documented in depth, with complete provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography, and are accompanied by relevant studies and related drawings.

John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899: The Complete Paintings, Volume V

From 1900 to 1907, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) traveled considerably, visiting the Alps, Italy, Spain, Norway, and Palestine. In Palestine in 1905, he painted a significant group of oils and watercolors as well as a group of studies of the Bedouin. It was during this burst of artistic production that he painted The Mountains of Moab (Tate Gallery, London), which was the first pure landscape he ever exhibited (Royal Academy, 1906). In Italy and Spain, Sargent painted parks, gardens, fountains, and statues, subjects that reveal his taste for the high style of Renaissance and Mannerist art and for the romantic grandeur of deserted spaces.
As evidenced by the works in this new volume, Sargent reinvented himself as a landscape painter during his travels. Expressing a finely developed sense of modernity, he selected quirky angles of vision and used a range of compositional strategies—compression, foreshortening, abrupt croppings, and receding perspectives—in a manner that is quasi-photographic. He exploited the material qualities of pigment, and the impasto is often so thickly applied that figure and landscape seem to dissolve together creating rich, near abstract surface patterns. The restless handling and dynamic compositional rhythms act in creative tension with the artist's more traditional subject matter, generating notions of instability and ambiguity that are distinctly modern in character.

John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907: The Complete Paintings, Volume VII (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)

The penultimate volume of the acclaimed catalogue raisonné showcases paintings of some of Sargent’s favorite places and people After John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) determined to curtail his internationally successful portrait practice, he had more freedom to paint where and what he wanted. Volume VIII of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné transports us to the artist’s most beloved locations, often with his friends and family. In the paintings featured here, Sargent returned to subjects that had always held deep personal connections and artistic challenges: mountains, streams, rocks and torrents, figures in repose, architecture and gardens, boats and shipping. He had known and painted the Alps since childhood, and his new Alpine studies make up the greatest number of works in this book. Beautifully designed, this volume represents a continuation in organization and presentation of the high standards that mark the series, and documents 299 works in oil and watercolor. Each painting is catalogued with full provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Wherever possible, works are illustrated in color; some are accompanied by related drawings and comparative studies by Sargent’s fellow artists. Contemporary photographs pinpoint the places and views that Sargent painted.

John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes 1908–1913: The Complete Paintings, Volume VIII (John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings)

The final volume in a full survey of the work of John Singer Sargent, covering his late watercolors, designs for the Boston murals, and work as an official War Artist The last in a series of books devoted to the work of John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), this volume covers the figure and landscape works that Sargent produced between 1914 and 1925. The story begins with the artist painting with friends on vacation in Austria in the summer of 1914, unaware that war was about to be declared. The following year, he began working in London on his ideas for the murals at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, before spending two years in Boston and exploring other parts of America. While in Florida to paint a portrait of John D. Rockefeller, he produced a group of uniquely Floridian watercolors that are breathtaking arrangements of color, form, and light. In July 1918 he accepted an invitation from the British government to travel to the Somme battlefields as an official war artist. This experience led him to produce a remarkable group of works depicting troop movements, off-duty soldiers relaxing, and the studies for his epic canvas, Gassed. Sargent returned to Boston in 1921 and 1922 to complete his mural projects, and visits to Maine and New Hampshire yielded numerous watercolors. Chapters on Sargent’s materials and the framing of his pictures complete this remarkable project.

John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1914-1925: The Complete Paintings, Volume IX

The cumulative index to John Singer Sargent: The Complete Paintings comprises two indexes covering the nine volumes of the complete catalogue raisonné: a comprehensive general index and an index of the titles of all the works by Sargent that have been referenced in the catalogue project.

John Singer Sargent Complete Catalogue of Paintings Cumulative Index

Individual Artists

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