About Sargent

I visited Sargent and Paris exhibition at the Met, partly as a study. Most of the works I'had already seen at Sargent and Fashion at Tate Britain last summer in London, yet second time staring at these paintings, still in awe. There’s something about Sargent’s paintings that resists familiarity.

What makes Sargent so fascinating? I guess 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 the canvas seems almost accidental—until you realize how precisely it lands, and how exact the shape is.

Behind it is repetition. 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 effortlessness born from relentless discipline and repetition, in pursuit of perfection. 

Maybe that's why I am drawn to them - Sargent's paintings, the ballerina's perfectionism. They're my Sisyphus stone: the quiet, stubborn act of pushing against the absurdity of being. 

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

Restoring the 1884 Salon Version of Madame X, 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