Product Description

This extravagantly illustrated catalogue--published in association with a major exhibition--evokes the romantic fascination with Italy that glimmers in the work of John Singer Sargent.

Sargent, heralded on both sides of the Atlantic, was one of the most creative American artists of the late nineteenth century. Born in Florence to American parents living abroad, he retained a deep and lifelong connection to the country famed for its ability to get "ineradicably in one's blood." Sargent vacationed frequently in Italy, and most of the works he created there were painted not for commission but out of his artistic passion for Italy's people, land, and culture. Often hauntingly powerful, they range from dramatically painted genre scenes of Italian peasants and saturated landscapes that celebrate the beauty of the Italian countryside to portraits of other Anglo-American expatriates and tourists, including Henry James and Edith Wharton.

The majority of works are of Italian sites, including well-known tourist spots but also the quieter, more isolated locales that Sargent sought out. His subjects include magnificent Italian gardens with their ancient and Baroque statuary, Rome's Neoclassical and Renaissance buildings, urban street scenes, the Italian Alps, and, of course, Venetian canals. Sargent found Venice particularly alluring, and the city well suited the watercolor medium in which he worked most often in Italy. His use of vivid colors, brushwork that varied from soft and fluid to bold and dashing, and an overwhelming sense of light and air characterize his Italian scenes--and rank Sargent as one of the finest watercolorists of all time. His later Italian works, some in watercolor and others in oil, reveal an artist who relished his materials and made art purely for art's sake. Both beautiful and informative, this lavish volume includes eighty-five color and fifty black-and-white images. It adds a new dimension to our appreciation of Sargent's art and will delight anyone who loves Italy, as Sargent so passionately did.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
September 22, 2002-January 6, 2003

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
February 9-May 11, 2003

Denver Art Museum
June 28-September 21, 2003

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #607998 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Booklist
This handsome volume explores, for the first time, the intimate link between American artist John Singer Sargent and Italy, the country of his birth. Born to American parents in 1856, Sargent traveled extensively throughout Europe. From childhood on, he was entranced with the Italian Renaissance, and, by age 12, he was sketching the artistic and scenic wonders of Italy, which became "the country he repeatedly returned to for inspiration and refreshment." Contrary to earlier studies that dismissed or minimized its influence, Robertson and his contributors view Italy as the foundation upon which Sargent built his magnificent oeuvre. In a series of groundbreaking essays, contributors explore the painter's early studies of Venetian scenes, his portraits and murals, landscapes and garden paintings, and what are referred to as his Alpine paintings. The book also details Sargent's relationships with such influential writers and artists as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and James Whistler. Extremely well written and filled with magnificent reproductions, this beautiful volume offers the first in-depth and original study of this great artist in many years. Lauren Roberts
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Sargent became one of the most international American artists of his day, shuttling around Italy, France, England, and the United States, but he knew Italy most intimately... [He] hated the dull routine of society portraiture, and his Italian trips--painting peasants in Capri, Venetian bead stringers, Alpine brooks--refreshed him. -- Katherine Zoepf New York Times Book Review [Sargent's] synthesis of the classic and the contemporary plays with light and shadow to create a shimmering sensuality... [He] seemed to revel in the freedom which watercolors provide, and it is tempting to see these later Italian works as a release of sorts from the murals and high-toned portraits... [T]hese paintings, of gardens, quarries, cypresses, and of his family and friends on holiday, convey a powerful sense of that liberation. -- Michael Carlson Times Literary Supplement Extremely well written and filled with magnificent reproductions, this beautiful volume offers the first in-depth and original study of this great artist in many years. Booklist Beautiful and informative... Italy was extremely influential on Sargent's work, which makes this a significant addition to book son Sargent. Library Journal With each new book on the ever-popular John Singer Sargent, readers learn more about the substantive complexities of an artist too often dismissed as simply a fashionable portraitist. The attraction of this appealing book ... is the opportunity it affords for scholarly focus on a key aspect of Sargent's career. Choice Sargent and Italy, a lavishly illustrated volume ... reminds us that Italy is both a place and an idea... The idea of Italy--a metaphor for excess, romance and seduction--has ... been ... important to artists, among them John Singer Sargent... Sargent and Italy insists, convincingly, that Sargent's vision of Italy was ultimately his own. -- Christopher Capozzola The Art Book

Review
Sargent became one of the most international American artists of his day, shuttling around Italy, France, England, and the United States, but he knew Italy most intimately. . . . [He] hated the dull routine of society portraiture, and his Italian trips--painting peasants in Capri, Venetian bead stringers, Alpine brooks--refreshed him.
(Katherine Zoepf New York Times Book Review )

[Sargent's] synthesis of the classic and the contemporary plays with light and shadow to create a shimmering sensuality. . . . [He] seemed to revel in the freedom, which watercolors provide, and it is tempting to see these later Italian works as a release of sorts from the murals and high-toned portraits. . . . [T]hese paintings, of gardens, quarries, cypresses, and of his family and friends on holiday convey a powerful sense of that liberation.
(Michael Carlson Times Literary Supplement )

Extremely well written and filled with magnificent reproductions, this beautiful volume offers the first in-depth and original study of this great artist in many years.
(Booklist )

Beautiful and informative. . . . Italy was extremely influential on Sargent's work, which makes this a significant addition to book son Sargent.
(Library Journal )

With each new book on the ever-popular John Singer Sargent, readers learn more about the substantive complexities of an artist too often dismissed as simply a fashionable portraitist. The attraction of this appealing book . . . is the opportunity it affords for scholarly focus on a key aspect of Sargent's career.
(Choice )

Sargent and Italy, a lavishly illustrated volume . . . reminds us that Italy is both a place and an idea. . . . The idea of Italy--a metaphor for excess, romance and seduction--has . . . been . . . important to artists, among them John Singer Sargent. . .. Sargent and Italy insists, convincingly, that Sargent's vision of Italy was ultimately his own.
(Christopher Capozzola The Art Book )

Customer Reviews

dissatisfied with reproductions
Ordered unseen and then attended exhibit. I was dissatisfied with color prints before exhibit and really disappointed afterwards. A graphic artist friend refused to buy the book after seing the color reproductions

reproductions are not what i expected
I just returned with a friend from the Sargent and Italy exhibit , and I had purchased this book before going and thought the repoductions lacked vibrancy and did little for me, and after seeing the exhibit my thoughts were confirmed and I was even more disappointed , and a friend of mine who is a retired graphic artist and attended the exhibit would not purchase the book based on the reproductions

Appeals to the Eye and to the Intellect
SARGENT IN ITALY does what many catalogues set out to accomplish but few achieve - document a magnificent exhibition while creating an art history book of great substance. The catalogue for the travelling exhibition SARGENT AND ITALY mirrors the elegance of the painter's touch, the intense infatuation and observation of the painter's favorite places (Venice in particular), and the intellectual atmosphere in which all of these works were created. Everyone knows of John Singer Sargent's finesse with the portraits of the wealthy and with figure painting in the studio and out on location, but few have the knowledge that Sargent found just as much life and senusality in the landscape as he did in the beautifully gowned patronesses of his career. Author Robertson is careful to include the treasurable quotes from the works of Henry James and other writers which flank many of the paintings in the exhibition and in the book. James and Sargent were close friends and colleagues, and that quality of shared observation helps make this show and this book the successes they are. The only minor flaw in the book is the quality of color reproduction which tends toward the muddy, dim side - hardly what this painter of light was all about. But the paintngs here are in other volumes where they are not as graced with the written word as they are here. A fine exhibition and a very fine catalogue/book.