Love, Loss and Modernity in the Landscapes of John Singer Sargent
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BEYOND THE PAINTED DIARY: LOVE, LOSS AND MODERNITY IN THE LANDSCAPES OF JOHN SINGER SARGENT A thesis submitted to the College of the Arts of Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts by Stephanie Wigginton Kowalczyk August, 2016 Thesis written by Stephanie Wigginton Kowalczyk B.A., The University of Texas San Antonio, 2010 M.A., Kent State University, 2016 Approved by ___________________________________________________ O. Carol Salus, Ph.D., Advisor ___________________________________________________ Michael Loderstedt, M.F.A., Interim Director, School of Art ___________________________________________________ John Crawford-Spinelli, Ed. D., Dean, College of the Arts ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………..…………..iv LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………….………..……………v CHAPTER I. BEGINNINGS……..……………………………………………………………..……..……………….1 II. THE FIGURE SET IN LANDSCAPE………………………………………..…………..…………….9 III. LATE LANDSCAPES AND OTHER WORKS…………………………..……………….…………23 IV. CONCLUSION………………………………….………………………………………….………...44 FIGURES…………………………………………….………………………………………….………..46 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………………...63 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Craig, you have been my biggest fan in all that I have set out to do. Thank you for your understanding through all the long nights, weekends away and bouts of anxiety when I was sure that I would not be able to finish this. To Helena and Rory, since before you came into this world you have been the motivating force behind all I do. You are my inspiration, happiness and joy. Your smiles, laughs and cries reach to the depths of me in a way that I could never have imagined. Mommy loves you to the moon and back. To my parents, Tim and Sandra Wigginton and Teresa Jones for showing me the value of hard work and determination, I am eternally grateful. To my grandmother, Juanita Wigginton. You have been not only a wonderful grandmother but also a mother, friend and confidant. Thank you for all your words of encouragement and the tens of thousands of prayers sent to Heaven on my behalf. Words cannot express the deep love I feel for you. To Marley, Matilda, Gitta, Gretchen and Nera for your wet kisses, wagging tails and unconditional love. And to Carol and Diane. I am grateful to you both for your patience and guidance through this process. iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Matterhorn, Zermatt, 1870………………………………………………………………………..8 2. The Matterhorn, 1870……………………………………………………………………………..8 3. Madame Edouard Pailleron, 1879……………………………………………………………….10 4. Daisy Leiter, 1898…………………………………………………………………………..……12 5. The Honorable Pauline Astor, 1898-9……………………………………………………...……12 6. Frederick Law Olmsted, 1895…………………………………………………………...…….…13 7. Landscape with Women in the Foreground, 1883………………………………………………..14 8. Group with Parasols (Siesta), 1904………………………………………………………………14 9. Charles Deering, 1917……………………………………………………………………………15 10. On His Holdiays, 1901……………………………………………………………………………16 11. The Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, 1878………………………………………………………….17 12. Carrara: Workmen, 1911……………………………………………………………………...…19 13. Simplon Pass: Reading, 1911…………………………………………………………………….21 14. Purtud, Bed of a Glacier Torrent, 1904…………………………………………………………..26 15. The Mountains of Moab, 1905……………………………………………………………………26 16. A Torrent in Norway, 1901……………………………………………………………………….26 17. In Norway, 1901….……………………………………………………………………………….26 18. Rushing Water, 1901-7…………………………………………………………………………...27 19. Matterhorn, 1902…………………………………………………………………………………28 20. Mount Cervin: Alps (Matterhorn), 1905………………………………………………………….28 21. Stream over Rocks, 1907………………………………………………………………………….30 22. Mountain Torrent, 1910…………………………………………………………………………..30 23. Mountain Waterfall, 1909-10……………………………………………………………………..30 24. Hübschlorn Mountain, Simplon Pass, 1909-11…………………………………………………..31 25. Tyrolese Interior, 1915…………………………………………………………………………...34 v 26. Tyrolese Crucifix, 1914…………………………………………………………………………...34 27. Graveyard in the Tyrol, 1914……………………………………………………………………..35 28. Lake O’Hara, 1916……………………………………………………………………………….36 29. Palmettos, 1917…………………………………………………………………………………...37 30. Gassed, 1918……………………………………………………………………………………...39 31. Ruined Cathedral, Arras, 1918…………………………………………………………………...41 32. On the Veranda (Ironbound Island, Maine), 1922……………………………………………….42 33. Sand Beach, Schooner Head, Maine, 1921……………………………………………………….43 vi 1 CHAPTER 1 BEGINNINGS I should have liked to add that, besides significance, Sargent extracted and made visible the actual beauty of the world; and never so much as in the innumerable oil sketches and watercolours which make him one of the greatest landscape painters. -Vernon Lee, 1925 Introduction American expatriate artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is best known for his extraordinary output of portraiture which captures the very essence of its subject in a seemingly effortless manner. His extensive oeuvre and enigmatic approach to portraiture remain in our consciousness still today and have influenced scores of artists since the beginning of his professional career. Although portrait commissions dominated the first half of his career, it is his late work that is the truest expression of his artistic vision. The landscapes and genre scenes produced during the latter half of his life, highlight his personal interest in not only art but also in the world around him. These late works, though rarely examined and considered by many scholars to be lesser works, deserve no less attention than his grand portraits. These numerous landscapes include images of the most important people in Sargent’s very private life, served as cathartic exercises after the loss of his beloved mother and many are so avant-garde in their approach that they at first glance appear more like abstract works than mountain streams or tranquil pastoral scenes. In these pictures, Sargent paints his intimate feelings and perfects his craft. His devotion to not only his family but also art and painting is evident in the thousands of works produced from 1900 until his death in 1925. Born on January 12, 1856 in Florence, Italy to American expatriates, Fitzwilliam Sargent and Mary Newbold Sargent, John Singer Sargent lived a nomadic existence with his parents and sisters. The family moved across Europe between climates as the weather changed, never settling in one place for 2 more than a few months. This wandering way of life meant much of Sargent’s education was informal and sporadic, on a few occasions he attended a proper school but was for the most part educated by his parents. His father assumed the responsibility of subjects such as literature and language while his mother took on the role of exposing her son to the arts and culture. She taught him how to look at the world and encouraged him to observe the details of his surroundings. Mary Sargent, an amateur artist herself, fostered her son’s artistic inclinations, instructing him to finish at least one of the sketches he began each day. As a young child learning from his mother, Sargent worked primarily in watercolor and painted countless landscapes, most of which were mountains and waterfalls. In his early sketchbooks he reproduced architectural details noted on his travels with his parents and indicated a preference for minutiae. He was drawn to the smallest of details, his interest in a microscopic view of the world would resurface in his later work when he returned to landscapes almost exclusively in the early twentieth century. Landscape Painting in Nineteenth-Century Europe The association of Sargent and landscape is a complex issue, his involvement with landscape painting is frequently underestimated in scholarly literature yet it accounts for approximately twenty five years of his career and constitutes the bulk of the artwork created during the first eighteen years of his life. It is necessary to look at the genre of landscape painting in terms of academic standards as well as its development in European painting. Sargent arrived in Paris in 1874, just before the deaths of Corot, Millet and Courbet, whose artistic output and radical approach to landscapes revolutionized the genre, and around the same time as the first Impressionist exhibition. Since the mid-seventeenth century, in Paris specifically, landscape painters and paintings had risen and fallen from favor numerous times. As the form of government and social systems underwent changes so did the attitudes toward the landscape genre. 3 In 1648, the founding charter of the Académie des beaux-arts described history painting “as an art of high ethical purpose”1 that required a knowledge of both poetry and the liberal arts. History painting was understood to be a genre of the intellectually superior. Landscape painting was classified in a similar manner, requiring intellect, an understanding of classical literature and considered a genre of “informed gentleman.”2 The French Revolution sparked changes in long-standing societal structures allowing for upward mobility not previously possible. Those once considered uneducated and of a lower social class were now able to move into the upper levels of society; although they now had the means to purchase artworks most still lacked the education and intellect thought necessary to appreciate them. Because landscape works can be understood and appreciated on their surface even if one lacks the intelligence to grasp their deeper significance this genre came to be associated with the new middle class and thus less prestigious than most other genres.