Madame X, 1883-1884, Oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:
Assembling more than 90 works, many of which are returning to France for the first time since their creation, the exhibit John Singer Sargent. Dazzling Paris at the Orsay Museum in Paris – the first to explore the most decisive period in the American painter’s career — promises to be one of the blockbusters of the season.
For any lover, admirer or aficionado of this extraordinary painter, it’s a trip definitively worth making.
Organized in partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, John Singer Sargent. Dazzling Paris, opened at the Musée d’Orsay on September 23 and runs until January 11, 2026. It traces the artist’s early career and meteoric rise to fame in Paris where he had arrived in 1874 at the age of eighteen to study with Carolus-Duran and where he remained until the mid-1880s.
He produced some of his greatest masterpieces during this remarkable 10-year period as he developed both his style and his personality and made a name for himself with his inventiveness and audacity in the melting pot of the glittering Parisian art world.
One hundred years after Sargent’s death, this exhibition aims to (re)introduce him to the public in France, where he has been largely forgotten despite being celebrated in England and the United States as one of the greatest artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the Luxembourg Gardens, 1879, John G. Johnson Collection, The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:John Singer Sargent At Home In Paris
The young American painter found no lack of support in Paris from other expatriates and made himself at home in French society, forging ties with a circle of artists, writers and enlightened collectors. The exhibition highlights the key role women – sponsors, friends, models and art critics – played in his success.
Constantly on the lookout for fresh inspiration, Sargent rarely depicted ‘Parisian life’, but used the capital as a base from which to travel extensively throughout Europe and North Africa. “It was in the field of portraiture that Sargent established himself as the most talented artist of his day,” explain the organizers, “captivating viewers and critics alike, some of whom saw him as a worthy successor to the Spanish master Diego Vélasquez.”
The Scandal Around Madame X
In 1884, at the age of 30 he moved to London after his masterpiece, the famous portrait of American ‘professional beauty’ Virginie Gautreau, (Madame X), caused a scandal and provoked mostly hostile reactions around the Parisian art world.
Born in New Orleans to a family of French émigrés, Virginie Amélie Avegno (1859–1915) moved to France in 1867, married French banker and shipping magnate Pierre Gautreau and became a leading figure in Paris high society circles.
Her beauty and elaborate use of make-up caught Sargent’s eye and he persuaded her to sit for him. The long sessions resulted in one of his best-known masterpieces. Sargent was 28, his model 25.
When the Salon of 1884 opened, the painting was the center of attention and caused great controversy, even if some critics recognized its significance. People were shocked by the fallen shoulder strap, the plunging neckline, the model’s heavy make-up and her pose, which they felt made her look arrogant.
He kept the portrait in his studio until it was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916 following Virginie Gautreau’s death.
A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to this crucial moment in Sargent’s career and to the masterpiece that the artist would consider at the end of his life to be “the best thing I had ever produced.”
La Carmencita, around 1890, oil on canvas, Collection Musée d’Orsay
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:
After the barrage of criticism, Sargent took his revenge at the Salon of 1892 with the bright and vivacious portrait of another ‘femme fatale’, the Spanish dancer Carmencita. The work was widely admired and brought institutional recognition to the artist when it was bought by the French state for the Musée du Luxembourg, a first for a portrait by Sargent, who was 36 at the time and already acknowledged as a modern master.
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882, in their apartment in Paris, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:
Dr. Pozzi at Home, 1881, oil on canvas, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Collection Armand Hammer
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:An Inveterate Roving Painter
A portraitist of the Belle Époque as well as a landscape and watercolor painter, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) is considered one of the most important American artists of his generation.
Born in Florence, Italy, in 1856 to American parents, Sargent spent most of his career in London and the greater part of his life traveling. Organized for the centennial of the artist’s death, the exhibition follows the path of the artist’s ambition: to dazzle the world’s most prestigious art capital, where all the latest aesthetic trends were to be found.
Accompanied by his father, 18-year-old John knocked on the door of Carolus-Duran, a “realist” painter and successful portraitist who astounded viewers by the caliber of his drawings and sketches. He invited Sargent to enroll at his studio. At the same time, the young Sargent passed the entrance exam to attend the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts.
Despite being fully established in Paris, Sargent remained an inveterate roving painter who was most inspired by his myriad travels around France and the southern Mediterranean countries – Italy, Spain and Morocco.
In 1876, at age 20, Sargent made his first visit to the United States. He returned at regular intervals and although he found numerous commissions for his work he never settled there permanently.
Setting Out to Fish, 1878, Washington, National Gallery of Art
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:Portrait Master
A few years after moving to Paris, Sargent turned to portraiture, an artistic genre that was on the rise thanks to growing demand from the upper-middle classes.
It was also a time marked by the soaring popularity of photographic portraiture and the innovations developed by the Impressionists who depicted their models performing everyday activities or outdoors.
Sargent’s talent for painting portraits and creating flattering likenesses of his subjects was quickly established and he received a slew of awards and commissions, both from bohemian artists and wealthy American expatriates or French aristocrats.
As Sargent rose through the ranks of Parisian society, his networks expanded beyond the expatriate circles he first moved in upon arriving in Paris. Recognized for his talent and his cultured education, he moved seamlessly among artistic communities, literary circles and worldly society.
In 1881, Sargent took on a much grander studio at 41 Boulevard Berthier (in Paris’s 17th arrondissement) and was a member of the community of the most exalted painters, writers and art critics. He painted numerous spontaneous and intimate portraits of his friends, both men and women, many of whom supported him early on in his career.
Un coup de vent (Judith Gautier), around 1883-1885, oil on canvas, Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:
In the ensuing years, from London Sargent maintained strong links with the French art world, participating in the Salon until 1905 and continuing to travel to France until 1918.
Sargent, along with James McNeill Whistler, is considered, according to the exhibition organizers, “the most famous American artist of his generation and arguably one of the greatest painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Adored in the United States – his portrait of Madame X is considered the Mona Lisa of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American art collection in New York — he is also celebrated in the United Kingdom, where he spent most of his career.”
He died in 1925 in London, a book by French philosopher Voltaire in his hand. Sargent had been somewhat forgotten in France. Le Gaulois was the only publication to make his death front-page news: “This American, born in Florence, who loved France and who lived in London, had moreover in the years of his youth declared himself one of ours.”
John Singer Sargent at his studio with the portrait of Madame X, around 1884. Photo by Adolphe Giraudon (1849-1929 The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Musée d’Orsay – John Singer Sargent, Dazzling Paris:
Under the title “Sargent and Paris” the exhibition was first shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from April 27 to August 3 this year.
John Singer Sargent. Éblouir Paris, is open until January 11 at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
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