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Performing Identities in the Art of John Singer Sargent Leigh Culver

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Performing Identities in the Art of John Singer Sargent Leigh Culver University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 1999 Performing Identities in the art of John Singer Sargent Leigh Culver Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Culver, Leigh, "Performing Identities in the art of John Singer Sargent" (1999). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3084. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3084 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3084 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Performing Identities in the art of John Singer Sargent Abstract In the elegant society portraits by John Singer Sargent, body language created social identities. The fallen dress strap and obvious makeup in Madame X, for example, declared her a “professional beauty”; the costume of Charles Stewart proclaimed him a British lord. Critics often conflated appearance and character in Sargent's images, yet Sargent used theatre and masquerade in numerous works to problematize essentialist links between appearance and character that were fundamental to turn-of-the-century class, gender, and racial stereotypes. This dissertation concentrates on the art Sargent produced after Madame X, as he recovered from the scandal it provoked in 1884 and as he established his patron base in England and America. Many of Sargent's later works can be seen as a response to the issues raised by Madame X concerning the relationship between appearance and character. An analysis of theatrical elements in Sargent's paintings elucidates the function of these images in variously maintaining and challenging notions of social identity. Chapter One discusses the critical reception of Sargent's art in the context of a turn-of-the-century culture engaged in classification and performance activities. These activities are interpreted as strategic responses to a pervasive anxiety about the instability of class, gender, and racial identities resulting from modern conditions. This chapter looks specifically at the celebration of Sargent as a skilled delineator of “racial” types, the varied analyses of his own “national” identity, the debate over his artistic merit, and the concern about his “artifice.” Chapters Two through Four consider how Sargent responded to the discourses about his art through his portrayals of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (Chapter Two), Jewish and aristocratic patrons (Chapter Three), and costumed family members and friends (Chapter Four). The visual structures of the paintings, in relation to evidence about the social culture in which Sargent painted and exhibited, suggest his artistic intentions even if Sargent himself rarely spoke of them. Through his work, Sargent called attention to the dialectic between reality and artifice and, consequently, the constructed nature of art and identity. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History of Art First Advisor Elizabeth Johns Keywords communication and the arts, social sciences, art, identities, john singer sargent Subject Categories American Art and Architecture | Arts and Humanities | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3084 This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3084 PERFORMING IDENTITIES IN THE ART OF JOHN SINGER SARGENT Leigh Culver A DISSERTATION in History of Art Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1999 Supervisor of Dissertation Graduate Group Chairperson Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COPYRIGHT Leigh Culver 1999 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For Eric and My Parents in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With great pleasure, I thank the individuals and institutions whose support have made this dissertation possible. First and foremost, I thank my teachers at the University of Pennsylvania, especially my advisor, Elizabeth Johns, for her consistent encouragement and sound counsel. She has taught me many valuable lessons about being a scholar, writer, and teacher, for which I am forever grateful. In addition, John McCoubrey and Susan Sidlauskas have been role models in their insistence that the practice of art history begins with hard looking. The American Council of Learned Societies/Henry Luce Dissertation Fellowship Program in American Art, the Carl Zigrosser Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Chimicles Fellowship Program at the University of Pennsylvania provided generous support for research and writing. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the National Museum of American Art for providing workspace, technical support, and an invaluable environment o f intellectual exchange in their Research Fellows’ Office. My warmest thanks go to staff members at the following institutions who kindly offered invaluable assistance with research on their collections: the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Archives of American Art, the George Arents Research Library for Special Collections at Syracuse University, Blenheim Palace, the Boston Athenaeum, the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Chatsworth House, Cliveden House, the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Heinz Archive and Library of the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Hirshhom iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Museum and Sculpture Garden, Houghton Hall, die Library o f Congress, Luton Hoo, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the National Museum of American Art, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Rush Rhees Library of the University of Rochester, the Smith College libraries, the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Witt Library of the Courtauld Institute. The following individuals generously shared information and ideas and gave astute comments to various portions and versions of this dissertation: Scott Dimond, Brandon Fortune, Lee Glazer, Michele Miller, Sally Promey, and most notably Elizabeth Hutchinson. Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray kindly responded to inquiries about Sargent material. Claudia Brush Kidwell generously gave her time to answer many questions about costume. Marie-Louise Brodnax graciously shared her knowledge of the English Peerage. For help with illustrations, I am indebted to Suzan Reed. In addition, I thank the engaged audiences at the National Museum of American Art, Smith College, the University of Maryland, and the Symposium on the History of Art, sponsored by the Frick Collection and the Institute of Fine Arts, who responded to talks I gave on the material of this dissertation. Others who shared ideas, information, advice, and support at critical points in the dissertation process include the following people: Jonathan Binstock, Elizabeth Broun, Wendy Bellion, Tom Denenberg, Diane Dillon, Jane Dini, Sara Doris, Randy Griffey, George Gurney, Andrew Lemer, Katherine Manthome, Gay MacDonald, Judith v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Maxwell, Stephen Mihm, Stephanie Moye, Julie Simons, Ian Sweet, Andrea Williams, and members of my dissertation group at the University of Pennsylvania. Finally, I thank my parents for years of material and emotional support, encouragement, and sage advice. I thank my mother, in particular, for being a most dedicated cheerleader during the last months of this project To Eric Brodnax, I am more grateful than I can say for his wise counsel, cheerful tolerance, and unending belief in me. This dissertation could not have happened without them. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT PERFORMING IDENTITIES IN THE ART OF JOHN SINGER SARGENT Leigh Culver Elizabeth Johns In the elegant society portraits by John Singer Sargent, body language created social identities. The fallen dress strap and obvious makeup in Madame X, for example, declared her a "professional beauty”; the costume of Charles Stewart proclaimed him a British lord. Critics often conflated appearance and character in Sargent's images, yet Sargent used theatre and masquerade in numerous works to problematize essentialist links between appearance and character that were fundamental to tum-of-the-century class, gender, and racial stereotypes. This dissertation concentrates on the art Sargent produced after Madame X as he recovered from the scandal it provoked in 1884 and as he established his patron base in England and America. Many of Sargent's later works can be seen as a response to the issues raised by Madame X concerning the relationship between appearance and character. An analysis of theatrical elements in Sargent’s paintings elucidates the function of these images in variously maintaining and challenging notions of social identity. Chapter One discusses the critical reception of Sargent’s
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