Lecture 1 – Cultivating the Pose: The Grand Manner Portrait

Sargent’s art was best expressed in portraiture, the mainstay of his long career. He possessed an acute eye for composition with a daring flair for vivid gestures and sharp profiles. Alluding to the Old Master portrait painters, he borrowed from the past and produced dazzling, modern aristocratic portraits where swagger, attitude and persona were flaunted. Patrons clamoured for his portraits as he could confidently place them within their cultural milieu, indeed at the centre of their world. Similarly, his group portraits though depicting apparent stillness, often contained a dramatic intensity, whether the subjects provoked sentiment or suppressed it.