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拍品專文
A virtuoso painter in watercolor and oils, John Singer Sargent captured the genteel lifestyles of well-to-do Americans and Europeans during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sargent travelled frequently across the Continent and in the United States, visiting with friends and family members and recording their elegant lives in exquisite compositions. On the Verandah (Ironbound Island, Maine) exemplifies works such as this.
On the Verandah (Ironbound Island, Maine) depicts the painter Dwight Blaney with his wife and daughters, seated on the veranda of their summer home. Carl Little writes, "In the summers of 1921 and 1922, Sargent was the guest of the painter Dwight Blaney (1865-1944) at his home on Ironbound Island off the coast of Maine. Blaney was a member of the Boston School, a so-called 'gentleman painter.' Like his renowned friend, he was an accomplished watercolorist who enjoyed working en plein air.
A large island by Maine standards, roughly three miles long by two miles wide, Ironbound lies in the middle of Frenchman Bay, about midway between Bar and Winter Harbors. The first rusticators--summerfolk--had arrived around the time of the Civil War. Blaney maintained a summer studio on the island and hosted artist friends, among them, Sargent, Childe Hassam, and Ross Sterling Turner.
At least one oil, a portrait of Blaney at the edge of the forest, and a number of watercolors resulted form Sargent's visits to Ironbound. He painted several views of the island, including the impressive wharf, which at low tide loomed large out of the chill waters of the Gulf of Maine.
Sargent was obviously taken with the ambiance of the place. As was his habit, while others were relaxing he painted. In his portrayal of the Blaney family on the veranda of their Irondbound home, he depicts the ladies (Mrs. Blaney and the two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth) busy and comfortably knitting, while the mustachioed patriarch sits in a semi-reclined poisition with his long legs stretched out before him, taking in the view.
'The [Ironbound] pictures,' wrote art historian Lloyd Goodrich, 'were Sargent at his least formal-far more sympathetic, both humanly and artistically, than his commissioned portraits of the rich and fashionable.' Goodrich praised their 'visual freshness,' the product of an 'infallible eye and unerring hand, that were Sargent's most attractive gifts.'" (C. Little, The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent, Berkeley, California, 1998, p. 14)
In addition to being an accomplished painter, Dwight Blaney was also among the first serious collectors of American furniture and decorative arts, and in 1910, with three other friends, founded the Walpole Society, which continues today as perhaps the most distinguished organization devoted to American fine and decorative arts. Blaney's extraordinary home at 82-84 Mount Vernon Street on Boston's Beacon Hill was filled with the finest examples of their kind.
Later in her privately published memoirs, Elizabeth Blaney Cram remembered Sargent's visit to Ironbound, "Mr. Sargent told my father that he should always paint in watercolor because his composition was better. Mr. Sargent himself also painted in watercolors at Ironbound. One was of Father, Mother, Meg and me sitting on the veranda after lunch. Meg is knitting, I am sitting on the steps, Father is lounging in a chair." Elizabeth Hill Blaney Cram, The Memoirs of Elizabeth Hill Cram, privately printed, 1992, p. 70)
Such recollections reveal On The Verandah (Ironbound Island, Maine) to be a highly personal expression of fondness for close friends--a watercolor executed with brilliant style and ease by one of America's most celebrated painters.
This work will be included in the forthcoming John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonn by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, in collaboration with Warren Adelson and Elizabeth Oustinoff.
On the Verandah (Ironbound Island, Maine) depicts the painter Dwight Blaney with his wife and daughters, seated on the veranda of their summer home. Carl Little writes, "In the summers of 1921 and 1922, Sargent was the guest of the painter Dwight Blaney (1865-1944) at his home on Ironbound Island off the coast of Maine. Blaney was a member of the Boston School, a so-called 'gentleman painter.' Like his renowned friend, he was an accomplished watercolorist who enjoyed working en plein air.
A large island by Maine standards, roughly three miles long by two miles wide, Ironbound lies in the middle of Frenchman Bay, about midway between Bar and Winter Harbors. The first rusticators--summerfolk--had arrived around the time of the Civil War. Blaney maintained a summer studio on the island and hosted artist friends, among them, Sargent, Childe Hassam, and Ross Sterling Turner.
At least one oil, a portrait of Blaney at the edge of the forest, and a number of watercolors resulted form Sargent's visits to Ironbound. He painted several views of the island, including the impressive wharf, which at low tide loomed large out of the chill waters of the Gulf of Maine.
Sargent was obviously taken with the ambiance of the place. As was his habit, while others were relaxing he painted. In his portrayal of the Blaney family on the veranda of their Irondbound home, he depicts the ladies (Mrs. Blaney and the two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth) busy and comfortably knitting, while the mustachioed patriarch sits in a semi-reclined poisition with his long legs stretched out before him, taking in the view.
'The [Ironbound] pictures,' wrote art historian Lloyd Goodrich, 'were Sargent at his least formal-far more sympathetic, both humanly and artistically, than his commissioned portraits of the rich and fashionable.' Goodrich praised their 'visual freshness,' the product of an 'infallible eye and unerring hand, that were Sargent's most attractive gifts.'" (C. Little, The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent, Berkeley, California, 1998, p. 14)
In addition to being an accomplished painter, Dwight Blaney was also among the first serious collectors of American furniture and decorative arts, and in 1910, with three other friends, founded the Walpole Society, which continues today as perhaps the most distinguished organization devoted to American fine and decorative arts. Blaney's extraordinary home at 82-84 Mount Vernon Street on Boston's Beacon Hill was filled with the finest examples of their kind.
Later in her privately published memoirs, Elizabeth Blaney Cram remembered Sargent's visit to Ironbound, "Mr. Sargent told my father that he should always paint in watercolor because his composition was better. Mr. Sargent himself also painted in watercolors at Ironbound. One was of Father, Mother, Meg and me sitting on the veranda after lunch. Meg is knitting, I am sitting on the steps, Father is lounging in a chair." Elizabeth Hill Blaney Cram, The Memoirs of Elizabeth Hill Cram, privately printed, 1992, p. 70)
Such recollections reveal On The Verandah (Ironbound Island, Maine) to be a highly personal expression of fondness for close friends--a watercolor executed with brilliant style and ease by one of America's most celebrated painters.
This work will be included in the forthcoming John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonn by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, in collaboration with Warren Adelson and Elizabeth Oustinoff.