Lecture 2 – Out of Doors: Responding to the World

John Singer Sargent was at the centre of a cultural shift as the American art world looked towards Europe with London and Paris acting as its expatriate hubs. Though Sargent had received formal French academic training, he imbibed the Impressionists’ revelatory use of colour and light. He never fully adopted the group’s technical methods, but their shared plein-air activity anticipated Sargent’s outdoor work. His extensive travels, particularly to the Alps and Italy, North Africa and the Near East amply demonstrate his growing mastery. In North America his work in both landscape and as a mural artist, complimented his itinerant lifestyle as he attained lyrical heights in technique and subject.
While World War 1 interrupted his life-long habits, yet his art treated the sombre subject matter with the same sense of bravura at the end of his long life and glittering career.