John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1874-1882; Complete Paintings: Volume IV »

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 raisonné 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.

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 raisonné 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.

Library Journal

In 1874, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) entered the atelier of French academic painter Carolus-Duran, whose teaching emphasized precise observation and decisive paint handling. Soon, he became Carolus-Duran's star pupil and by 1882 exhibited El Jaleo: Danse de Gitanes, his masterpiece of Spanish dance, at the Paris salon. At a mere 26, Sargent was a sensation, an acclaimed master, and a critical success. The first three volumes of this catalogue raisonn were devoted to the artist's portraiture; this fourth accompanies an international exhibition and reproduces 150 of Sargent's landscapes, seascapes, figures in landscape settings, and architectural and old master studies-paintings in oil and watercolor. The sumptuousness and scholarship are impressive. In addition to the paintings, there are highly readable essays and more than 200 reference figures-e.g., sketches, studies, photographs, and related works-adding to the catalog's thoroughness. Provenance is carefully explored. Many of the paintings reproduced here have rarely been seen, and some are untraced, represented by photographs from dealers' files or earlier publications. Highly recommended.-Ilene Skeen, New York Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.