The novelist Henry James once said about his friend John Singer Sargent that even while still in his twenties he presented the alarming spectacle of a painter who seemed to have nothing more to learn. To this day Sargent is regarded as the greatest virtuoso of the paintbrush in the history of American art. He could, with almost offhand ease,find brilliant solutions to problems in composition, modeling and rendering that would have overwhelmed other artists, and his draftsmanship was so sure that he seldom bothered even to make.the usual preliminary pencil or charcoal sketches on his canvasses, relying on his paintbrush alone to do whatever drawing was necessary.

The novelist Henry James once said about his friend John Singer Sargent that even while still in his twenties he presented the alarming spectacle of a painter who seemed to have nothing more to learn. To this day Sargent is regarded as the greatest virtuoso of the paintbrush in the history of American art. He could, with almost offhand ease,find brilliant solutions to problems in composition, modeling and rendering that would have overwhelmed other artists, and his draftsmanship was so sure that he seldom bothered even to make.the usual preliminary pencil or charcoal sketches on his canvasses, relying on his paintbrush alone to do whatever drawing was necessary.

INTRODUCTION

EARLY WORKS

FRIENDS AND FELLOW ARTISTS

SCOIETY PORTRAITS

TRAVEL AND LANDSCAPE STUDIES

LIST OF COLOR PLATES