Lot Essay
John Singer Sargent painted Jerusalem while traveling in the Holy Land in 1906 to gather information for his mural, The Triumph of Religion, for the Boston Public Library. Although he found little material for the Boston mural, "this did not mean that Sargent was idle in the Holy Land or unresponsive to its singular appearance. During his months of travel through Palestine he produced dozens of spare watercolor views and a startling group of full-scale oil landscapes." (J. Davis, The Landscape of Belief, Princeton, New Jersey, 1996, p. 214)
Although he was accustomed to traveling throughout Europe, the Holy Land was a new experience for Sargent, with architecture and environment like no other place. Sargent, unlike the artists who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see the historic architecture and terrain, avoided taking a historical or religious position in his work. Instead, he concentrated on the aesthetic and exotic qualities of the region. It may be due to the artist's "lifelong expatriate rootlessness, [that] these works differ from previous nineteenth-century images in their apparent lack of a partisan point of view." (J. Davis, p. 214).
Although he was celebrated as the most fashionable society painter of the day, Sargent was equally renowned for his virtuoso watercolors and oil paintings with brilliantly inspired and daring compositions. Jerusalem exemplifies this type of painting, and it is fitting that Sargent would have made this departure in Palestine, as he had never been exposed to the striking vistas that he observed in this area. Richard Ormond notes that "In Jerusalem, [Sargent] was fascinated by the delicate architecture around the Dome of the Rock, contrasting thin marble pillars with brilliant blue sky, cool shadowed areas with strident white walls, in a series of vivid paintings and watercolours." (John Singer Sargent, Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, London, England, 1970, p. 70) Jerusalem exemplifies the artist's purely artistic approach to his surroundings and his fascination with the architecture and atmosphere of the Holy Land. As in many of the artist's most successful works, Jerusalem exhibits Sargent's fluid brushwork and conveys his immediate reaction to the majesty and splendor of the subject he is rendering--in this instance, the exotic atmosphere and ancient architecture of the Holy Land.
This painting 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.
Although he was accustomed to traveling throughout Europe, the Holy Land was a new experience for Sargent, with architecture and environment like no other place. Sargent, unlike the artists who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see the historic architecture and terrain, avoided taking a historical or religious position in his work. Instead, he concentrated on the aesthetic and exotic qualities of the region. It may be due to the artist's "lifelong expatriate rootlessness, [that] these works differ from previous nineteenth-century images in their apparent lack of a partisan point of view." (J. Davis, p. 214).
Although he was celebrated as the most fashionable society painter of the day, Sargent was equally renowned for his virtuoso watercolors and oil paintings with brilliantly inspired and daring compositions. Jerusalem exemplifies this type of painting, and it is fitting that Sargent would have made this departure in Palestine, as he had never been exposed to the striking vistas that he observed in this area. Richard Ormond notes that "In Jerusalem, [Sargent] was fascinated by the delicate architecture around the Dome of the Rock, contrasting thin marble pillars with brilliant blue sky, cool shadowed areas with strident white walls, in a series of vivid paintings and watercolours." (John Singer Sargent, Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors, London, England, 1970, p. 70) Jerusalem exemplifies the artist's purely artistic approach to his surroundings and his fascination with the architecture and atmosphere of the Holy Land. As in many of the artist's most successful works, Jerusalem exhibits Sargent's fluid brushwork and conveys his immediate reaction to the majesty and splendor of the subject he is rendering--in this instance, the exotic atmosphere and ancient architecture of the Holy Land.
This painting 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.