JAN 12 Today we celebrate the birth of John Singer Sargent. He was born in Florence in 1856 to American parents and spent most of his life in Europe. He studied in Paris and soon became a star student. His early interest was the landscape, but later he became known for his portraits and regularly exhibited full-length portrayals of women in the Salon. Sargent met Chilean-born Eugenia Errazuriz in Paris around 1880, and she frequently sat for him. Madame Errazuriz hangs at the @vmfamuseum and exhibits a style more free than his commissioned portraits. In 1884, he completed Portrait of Madame X, which he considered his best work. It caused such a scandal, however, that he lost support and soon left Paris. Nevertheless, Sargent enjoyed success through the end of his life, despite painting his style of Realism during a period in which Impressionism, Cubism, and other new forms held the art world’s attention.
