Sargent and the Art of Effortless

I visited Sargent and Paris exhibition at the Met, partly as a study. Most of the works I've already saw at Sargent and Fashion at Tate Britain this summer, yet second time staring at these paintings, I was still in awe. There’s something about Sargent’s paintings that resists familiarity—they don’t grow old with time or repetition. If anything, they reveal more.

What makes Sargent so endlessly fascinating? Perhaps it’s the paradox at the heart of his technique: the brushwork appears spontaneous, even careless, and yet it’s underpinned by exacting control. A single highlight tossed on a cuff or collar seems almost accidental—until you realize how precisely it lands, how much it holds the form together.

Sargent often scraped away the entire painting and started over without hesitation. He was rarely satisfied with a first attempt. This relentless refinement reminds me of ballet: the illusion of effortless born from relentless discipline.

Sargent's Notes: 

• Simplify, omit all but the most essential elements—values, especially the values. You must clarify the values.
• The secret of painting is in the half tone of each plane, in economizing the accents and in the handling of the lights.
• You begin with the middle tones and work up from it . . . so that you deal last with your lightest lights and darkest darks, you avoid false accents.
• Always paint one thing into another and not side by side until they touch.

Sargent's Palette: 

• lead white (w. and w.o. zinc), vermilion, red lake, red ochre, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, a chromium-containing green, Prussian blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine, and umber. 

Sketch study at Tate Britain, 2024, London

Sketch study at the Met, 2025, New York

REFERENCE

[1] Thomas Jefferson Kitts. Advice on painting from John Singer Sargent. Muddy Colors. https://www.muddycolors.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/adviceSargent.pdf

[2] Gurney, J. (2009, February 26). Sargent's painting notes. Gurney Journey. http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/02/sargents-painting-notes.html

[3] "Sargent's Colorful Past", Index Magazine ([e-journal], June 12, 2018), https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/sargent-s-colorful-past

[4] Signet Society. (2017). 2017 newsletter of the Signet Society of Harvard College. https://issuu.com/signetsociety/docs/fall2017newsletterv2