Masters of Realism John Singer Sargent, Joaquín Sorolla, anders Zorn, and their influence on realist painters today By Norma N Kolpas John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo, 1882, oil on canvas, 91 x 137, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (P7s1). John Singer Sargent, Carolus-Duran, 1879, oil on canvas, 46 x 38, Clark Art Institute, 1955.14. “If ever a painter wrought a miracle visits to museums where canvases by Michelle Dunaway, Hiu Lai Chong, and book John Singer Sargent: The Sensualist. “He of illusion with brush and pigment,” ob- past masters could be studied up close. Daniel Gerhartz—who are particularly jabbed, dabbed, smeared, slapped, and served early 20th-century Spanish art- all that dedicated study of the past inspired by the masters’ work. scratched his paint surfaces; he deployed ist Joaquín Sorolla, “that painter was had changed quite a bit by the mid- brilliant, murky, flashy, peculiar, and Velázquez in his LaS MeninaS, at the 20th century. Modern art movements ravishing colours.” Prado in Madrid.” like cubism and abstract expression- John Singer Sargent: The early development of Sargent’s Sorolla, like so many painters work- ism strained ties with the past, and the A Sensual Technician singular style came in large part through ing in the european realist traditions works of the historical masters were of- Born to american parents but raised in his expatriate parents. His father, an eye that ruled the world of western art until ten dismissed as mere illustration. europe, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) surgeon and adept medical illustrator, the 20th century, looked respectfully to But in recent decades, masters from became the most celebrated portraitist and his mother, an accomplished ama- past masters for technical guidance and the last great heyday of realism have of his day, and his bold, mostly life-size, teur painter, recognized the rambunc- aesthetic inspiration. indeed, through- gained serious new regard from schol- and often full-length figurative works tious boy’s talent at a young age and in- out most of art history, aspiring artists ars and curators. and they have inspired endure today for their striking poses and troduced him, in great museums across studied the works of those who had countless artists who are part of the cur- compositions, evocative lighting, and europe, to masterpieces by the likes of come before them. The ateliers in which rent resurgence of appreciation for real- bravura paint application. “His images Michelangelo, Titian, and Tintoretto. they learned and refined their skills em- ist art. Here we take a look at three such present a vibrant, forceful realism while From his late teens to early 20s, he stud- phasized techniques and compositional masters: John Singer Sargent, anders subtly projecting emotions, desires, and ied in the prestigious École des Beaux- styles developed by their forebears. and Zorn, and Joaquín Sorolla. We also talk intuitions as their visual subtext,” ob- arts in Paris while also being mentored an artistic education routinely included to three contemporary realist painters— served critic Trevor Fairbrother in his in the atelier of the respected young Featured in Visit subscribenow.southwestart.com rative painter in Kewaskum, Wi, drew century socialites and collectors on both had little reason to feel anything like a similar inspiration from Sargent’s eL sides of the atlantic who vied for por- second-tier talent. Raised on a farm, he JaLeO in Boston’s isabella Stewart Gard- traits by leading painters of the era (Zorn went on to become a teen prodigy at ner Museum. The large, moody oil of a worked in Paris for many years, and Stockholm’s Royal Swedish academy of gypsy dancer, he says, “has always haunt- made seven trips to the United States) arts. Known at first for his luminous ed me. The composition is so strong, just deemed the Swedish artist a rival of watercolor works, he began to gain por- an abstract light-and-dark pattern that the american’s. The two men were even trait commissions for Swedish socialites. directs your eye exactly where he wants once pitched directly in competition by Demand for Zorn portraits grew even it to go.” Gerhartz particularly seeks to american railway tycoon edward Rath- greater when he began to master oils. emulate Sargent’s “ability to capture bone Bacon, who in 1897 challenged Zorn His works won acclaim in Paris, where tone, his mastery of value control, and to paint a better portrait of his sister-in- he and his wife, emma, lived for eight his color temperatures,” he says. “He law, Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon, than years. Soon members of the internation- was just head and shoulders above most the one Sargent had recently completed. al elite were clamoring for portraits by artists of his day.” Zorn later proudly recounted that when Zorn, captivated by his ability to capture Sargent viewed the Swede’s rendition at not just the likenesses but also the per- that year’s Paris Salon, he admitted Zorn sonalities of his subjects, which includ- anders Zorn: had “won a brilliant victory.” ed Sweden’s King Oscar II and Queen A Nuanced Palette as that self-aggrandizing anecdote Sophia, and U.S. presidents Taft, Cleve- Compared to Sargent’s present renown, might suggest, Zorn may have felt over- land, and Theodore Roosevelt. the name anders Zorn (1860-1920) is shadowed by his contemporary’s greater apart from those brilliantly executed decidedly less familiar. But late-19th- acclaim. But in his heyday, the Swede but still fairly conventional works, Zorn Michelle Dunaway, Her Mother’s Locket, oil, 20 x 16. Anders Zorn, Self-Portrait With Model, 1896, oil, 46 x 37, Nationalmuseum Stockholm. Parisian portraitist Carolus-Duran, who home for the rest of his life, his base for Dunaway when she first encountered emphasized to his students the alla prima creating images of illustrious Britons portraits by Sargent in the american approach—painting spontaneously on and americans, including presidents wing of new York’s Metropolitan Mu- the canvas directly from life, without Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wil- seum of art as a young sculpture student the classical traditions of first executing son. after turning 51, however, he closed in her early 20s. “across the room, you’d careful compositional underpaintings his London studio and devoted the fi- feel like you were looking at a real per- on the canvas. nal 18 years of his life largely to water- son,” she remembers. “But up close, they at the age of 23, Sargent burst into colors inspired by his travels in Britain, awoke the technician in me with their the public eye, exhibiting a widely ad- europe, north africa, and the Middle fluid brushwork and color notes.” mired portrait of his teacher Carolus- east, as well as murals inside Boston’s in 2013, Dunaway experienced a par- Duran. Commissions soon followed, Museum of Fine arts and Public Library ticular closeness to Sargent’s portrait of and one of them, his PORTRAIT OF Ma- and Harvard’s Widener Library. The MRS. eDWaRD DaRLeY BOiT in Boston’s DaMe X—a highly sensual depiction of a past three decades have seen major in- Museum of Fine art. “They let me do a pale-skinned young socialite in a bare- ternational museum retrospectives of study from life of the hands in the por- shouldered, cleavage-revealing black Sargent’s work, and today he is widely trait,” she says. “i learned so much from gown—created such a scandal that he considered a virtuoso talent. Sargent about color mixtures, design, eventually decamped to London. That That virtuosity captivated 43-year-old and composition.” city became the celebrated painter’s albuquerque-based portraitist Michelle Daniel F. Gerhartz, a 51-year-old figu- Anders Zorn, Emma Zorn, Läsande, 1887, oil, 16 x 24, Zorn Collections, Mora, Sweden. Featured in Visit subscribenow.southwestart.com continued to set himself technical chal- scape and figurative artist based in writer and actor COQUeLIN CaDeT. That’s something i try to capture in my lenges. Fascinated with light, the art- Rockville, MD. “Zorn often used a lim- Just as eye-opening for artists working work as well,” Dunaway says. ist launched into extensive works in oil ited palette, with black and white and today is Zorn’s often boldly asymmetric Chong also finds inspiration in Zorn’s that explored the nude female figure in red and yellow ochre, which can cre- approach to composition and design. Du- dramatic placement of figures in a scene, a watery outdoor setting and others de- ate beautiful harmony in a painting,” naway says she’s particularly taken with as in his painting VaLSEN, which depicts picting figurative scenes presented with she says. Gerhartz agrees, noting that the portrait eMMa ZORn, LÄSANDe, a a formally dressed couple at a ball waltz- dramatic contrasts of bright light and Zorn’s ability to model the form with domestic scene in which the artist’s wife ing on the borderline between a shad- deep shadow. even more than Zorn’s so few colors “challenges me to paint casually reads the newspaper, which oc- owy anteroom and a brightly lit grand portraits, these genre paintings continue with less rather than more color to cupies as much of the canvas as does her salon. “His sense of movement is just to be studied by scholars and admired see what nuance and subtlety you can figure. i“ love the rhythmical elements amazing,” Chong says. by artists at work today. gain.” He especially recalls being im- of the newspaper that bring your eye up They certainly fascinate and inspire pressed by Zorn’s SeLF-PORTRAIT WiTH to her face. it feels like you’re getting to Hiu Lai Chong, a 40-year-old land - MODeL and by his portrait of the French witness a transitory moment in time.