Sargent: Master of Watercolor in the 20th Century

Author: Li Jiaqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: John Singer Sargent, an outstanding portrait and watercolor painter active in both Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a painter born in Italy. In his early years, he studied under Carolus-Duran and created portraits so lifelike that they were praised by the British King as the world's most outstanding portrait painter. In watercolor painting, his mastery of color and light was even more admired, surpassing others. Sargent's philosophy on painting was to make the most of large brushes and sweeping long strokes, regardless of small areas and details, and to focus on the canvas before him, using the colors he chose to approach the truth of nature. A portrait of Madame × brought him from Europe to America. In 1890, he accepted the commission to decorate the Boston Public Library murals, a project that dominated the next twenty-five years of his life. Sargent was undoubtedly both famous and successful in his lifetime. For the world-class master painter who sought innovation throughout his life and continued to promote Western art, this was unquestionably a well-deserved achievement.