From 1874 to 1882, John Singer Sargent (1856?1925) produced more than 200 paintings and water-colors aside from portraiture, including figures in landscape settings, architectural studies, seascapes, subject paintings, and studies after old masters. From powerful studies of models in Paris in the mid-1870s to compelling paintings set in Venice in the early 1880s, the works published in this volume of the catalogue raisonne show the variety of his aesthetic responses. He worked in the studio and en plein air, travelling widely during the eight years covered in this volume and painting in Paris, Brittany, Capri, Spain, North Africa, and Venice. This is the first time that Sargent's early work has been mapped so comprehensively. With very few exceptions, this beautifully produced book illustrates all the pictures under discussion in color. Each painting, including several which have never been published before, is documented in depth with full provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography, and in many cases new information is provided. The volume also reproduces a wealth of Sargent's preliminary and related drawings and of comparative works by other artists.

Author Biography

Richard Ormond is a Sargent scholar and an independent art historian. He is author or co-author of books on Sargent, Landseer, Winterhalter, and Lord Leighton, and he is a great-nephew of John Singer Sargent. Elaine Kilmurray, co-author and research director of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonne project, was co-curator of the exhibition Sargent and Italy in 2002-3 and of the Sargent retrospective which opened at the Tate, London, in 1998.