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

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