Sargent : The Masterworks

A lush new volume devoted to the best works by beloved American Impressionist and portraitist John Singer Sargent, whose dazzling use of light and color depicts modern subjects with arresting intimacy.

An ideal introduction to the painter’s work, Sargent: The Masterworks features 100 of his most beloved paintings. Illustrating all aspects of his diverse oeuvre—portraits, landscapes, mural commissions—in oil and watercolor, this handsome new book includes works from both private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s infamous Madame X.

Author Stephanie L. Herdrich draws on a wealth of new research to provide both an essential overview and a more nuanced understanding of the great American painter. Richly illustrated, the book’s three chapters cover the artist’s career from his childhood and early years in Paris, to his mid-career portraits made in England and United States, and his later years painting out of doors. An illustrated chronology contains fascinating details and archival imagery about the artist’s life. Sargent’s cosmopolitan upbringing and education made him perfectly suited to capture the upwardly mobile bourgeoisie and aristocrats of his era, creating sensual portraits that depict his sitters with startling vibrancy. Though he achieved tremendous success in portraiture, Sargent focused on painting outdoors after 1900, achieving the most brilliant and personal images of his career. One of the greatest portraitists and watercolorists of his time, Sargent remains one of the most well-known and well-loved of all American artists.

Stephanie L. Herdrich is assistant curator of American painting and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She was cocurator of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends (2015) and Navigating the West: George Caleb Bingham and the River (2015) and is coauthor of American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent (2000).