Editing John Singer Sargent (section)

==Works==
{{see also|List of works by John Singer Sargent}}

===Portraits===
====Nineteenth-century portraits====

In the early 1880s, Sargent regularly exhibited portraits at the Salon, and these were mostly full-length portrayals of women, such as ''Madame Edouard Pailleron'' (1880) (done ''en plein-air'') and ''Madame Ramón Subercaseaux'' (1881). He continued to receive positive critical notice.<ref>Ormond, Richard: "Sargent's Art", ''John Singer Sargent'', pp. 25–7. Tate Gallery, 1998.</ref>

Sargent's best portraits reveal the individuality and personality of the sitters; his most ardent admirers think he is matched in this only by Velázquez, who was one of Sargent's great influences. The Spanish master's spell is apparent in Sargent's ''[[The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit]]'', 1882, a haunting interior that echoes Velázquez's ''[[Las Meninas]]''.<ref>Ormond (1998), p. 27, 1998.</ref> As in many of his early portraits, Sargent confidently tries different approaches with each new challenge, here employing both unusual composition and lighting to striking effect. One of his most widely exhibited and best loved works of the 1880s was ''[[Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt)|Lady with the Rose]]'' (1882), a portrait of Charlotte Burckhardt, a close friend and possible romantic attachment.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 40.</ref>

<gallery mode=packed heights="220" perrow="4">
File:Marie Buloz Pailleron A28390.jpg|''Madame Edouard Pailleron'', 1879, National Gallery of Art
File:Sargent - Madame Ramón Subercaseaux, c. 1880-81, nr. 41.jpg|''Madame Ramón Subercaseaux'', {{circa|1880–81}}
File:Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt) MET DT1151.jpg|''[[Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt)]]'', 1882, Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), John Singer Sargent, 1884 (unfree frame crop).jpg|''[[Portrait of Madame X]]'', 1884, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
</gallery>

===== Portrait of Madame X =====
{{Main|Portrait of Madame X}}
[[File:John Singer Sargent in atelier.jpg|thumb|John Singer Sargent in his studio with ''[[Portrait of Madame X]]'', c.&nbsp;1885]]

His most controversial work, ''Portrait of Madame X'' ([[Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau|Madame Pierre Gautreau]]) (1884) is now considered one of his best works and was his favorite; he stated in 1915: "I suppose it is the best thing I have done."<ref>Ormond & Kilmurray (1998), p. 114.</ref> When unveiled in Paris at the 1884 Salon, it aroused such a negative reaction that it likely prompted Sargent's move to London. Sargent's self-confidence had led him to attempt a risqué experiment in portraiture—but this time it unexpectedly backfired.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 45.</ref>

The painting was not commissioned by her, and he pursued her for the opportunity, quite unlike most of his portrait work where clients sought him out. Sargent wrote to a common acquaintance:<ref>Olson (1986), p. 102.</ref>

{{blockquote|I have a great desire to paint her portrait and have reason to think she would allow it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty. ...you might tell her that I am a man of prodigious talent.}}

It took well over a year to complete the painting.<ref>Ormond & Kilmurray (1998), p. 113.</ref> The first version of the portrait of Madame Gautreau, with the famously plunging neckline, white-powdered skin, and arrogantly cocked head, featured an intentionally suggestive off-the-shoulder dress strap, on her right side only, which made the overall effect more daring and sensual.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 47.</ref> Sargent repainted the strap to its expected over-the-shoulder position to try to dampen the furor, but the damage had been done. French commissions dried up and he told his friend [[Edmund Gosse]] in 1885 that he contemplated giving up painting for music or business.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 55.</ref>

Writing of the reaction of visitors, [[Judith Gautier]] observed:<ref>Cited in Ormond (1998), pp. 27–28.</ref>

{{blockquote|Is it a woman? a chimera, the figure of a [[unicorn]] rearing as on a [[herald]]ic coat of arms or perhaps the work of some [[oriental]] decorative artist to whom the human form is forbidden and who, wishing to be reminded of woman, has drawn the delicious [[Arabesque (European art)|arabesque]]? No, it is none of these things, but rather the precise image of a modern woman scrupulously drawn by a painter who is a master of his art.}}

Prior to the Madame X scandal of 1884, Sargent had painted exotic beauties such as [[Rosina Ferrara]] of [[Capri]] and the Spanish expatriate model Carmela Bertagna, but the earlier pictures had not been intended for broad public reception. Sargent kept the painting prominently displayed in his London studio until he sold it to the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in 1916 after moving to the United States, and a few months after Gautreau's death.

===== Move to England =====
[[File:Pozzi, Samuel - Par Sargent.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Dr. Pozzi at Home]]'', 1881, [[Hammer Museum]], Los Angeles.]]

Before arriving in England, Sargent began sending paintings for exhibition at the [[Royal Academy]]. These included the portraits of ''[[Dr. Pozzi at Home]]'' (1881), a flamboyant essay in red and his first full-length male portrait, and the more traditional ''Mrs. Henry White'' (1883). The ensuing portrait commissions encouraged Sargent to complete his move to London in 1886, where he settled in the artistic community of [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]].<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102-106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. |url= https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp102-106 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 2004 |access-date=December 21, 2022}}</ref>

Notwithstanding the Madame X scandal, he had considered moving to London as early as 1882; he had been urged to do so repeatedly by his new friend, the novelist [[Henry James]]. In retrospect his transfer to London may be seen to have been inevitable.<ref>Ormond (1998), p. 28, 1998.</ref>

English critics were not warm at first, faulting Sargent for his "clever" "Frenchified" handling of paint. One reviewer seeing his portrait of ''Mrs. Henry White'' described his technique as "hard" and "almost metallic" with "no taste in expression, air, or modeling". With help from Mrs. White, however, Sargent soon gained the admiration of English patrons and critics.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 43.</ref> Henry James also gave the artist "a push to the best of my ability".<ref>Olson (1986), p. 107.</ref>
[[File:Sargent MonetPainting.jpg|thumb|''Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood'', 1885, [[Tate Britain]], London]]
Sargent spent much time painting outdoors in the English countryside when not in his studio. On a visit to [[Claude Monet|Monet]] at [[Giverny]] in 1885, Sargent painted one of his most Impressionistic portraits, of Monet at work painting outdoors with his new bride nearby. Sargent is usually not thought of as an [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] painter, but he sometimes used impressionistic techniques to great effect. His ''Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood'' is rendered in his own version of the Impressionist style. In the 1880s, he attended the Impressionist exhibitions and he began to paint outdoors in the ''[[En plein air|plein-air]]'' manner after that visit to Monet. Sargent purchased four Monet works for his personal collection during that time.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 61.</ref>

Sargent was similarly inspired to do a portrait of his artist friend [[Paul César Helleu]], also painting outdoors with his wife by his side. A photograph very similar to the painting suggests that Sargent occasionally used photography as an aid to composition.<ref>Olson (1986), plate XVIII</ref> Through Helleu, Sargent met and painted the famed French sculptor [[Auguste Rodin]] in 1884, a rather somber portrait reminiscent of works by [[Thomas Eakins]].<ref>Ormond & Kilmurray (1998), p. 151.</ref> Although the British critics classified Sargent in the Impressionist camp, the French Impressionists thought otherwise. As Monet later stated: "He is not an Impressionist in the sense that we use the word, he is too much under the influence of Carolus-Duran."<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 68.</ref>

[[File:John Singer Sargent - Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose'', 1885–86, [[Tate Britain]], London.]]

Sargent's first major success at the [[Royal Academy of Arts]] came in 1887, with the enthusiastic response to ''[[Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose]]'', a large piece, painted on site, of two young girls lighting lanterns in an English garden in [[Broadway, Worcestershire|Broadway]] in the [[Cotswolds]]. The painting was immediately purchased by the [[Tate Gallery]].

His first trip to New York and Boston as a professional artist in 1887–88 produced over 20 important commissions, including portraits of [[Isabella Stewart Gardner]], the famed Boston art patron. His portrait of Mrs. Adrian Iselin, wife of a [[Adrian Iselin|New York businessman]], revealed her character in one of his most insightful works. In Boston, Sargent was honored with his first solo exhibition, which presented 22 of his paintings.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), pp. 70–2.</ref> Here he became friends with painter [[Dennis Miller Bunker]], who traveled to England in the summer of 1888 to paint with him en plein air, and is the subject of Sargent's 1888 painting ''Dennis Miller Bunker Painting at Calcot''.

Back in London, Sargent was quickly busy again. His working methods were by then well-established, following many of the steps employed by other master [[portrait painting|portrait painters]] before him. After securing a commission through negotiations which he carried out, Sargent would visit the client's home to see where the painting was to hang. He would often review a client's wardrobe to pick suitable attire. Some portraits were done in the client's home, but more often in his studio, which was well-stocked with furniture and background materials he chose for proper effect.<ref>Olson (1986), p. 223.</ref> He usually required eight to ten sittings from his clients, although he would try to capture the face in one sitting. He usually kept up pleasant conversation and sometimes he would take a break and play the piano for his sitter. Sargent seldom used pencil or oil sketches, and instead laid down oil paint directly.<ref>Ormond & Kilmurray (1998), p. xxiii.</ref> Finally, he would select an appropriate frame.

Sargent had no assistants; he handled all the tasks, such as preparing his canvases, varnishing the painting, arranging for photography, shipping, and documentation. He commanded about $5,000 per portrait, or about $130,000 in current dollars.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 76, price updated by CPI calculator to 2008 at [http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl data.bls.gov]</ref> Some American clients traveled to London at their own expense to have Sargent paint their portrait.
The range of pigments regularly used by Sargent was: "Mars yellow (a synthetic iron oxide) and [[cadmium yellow]]; [[viridian]] and emerald green, sometimes mixed; [[vermillion]] and [[Iron oxide red|Mars red]], both alone and mixed; madder; synthetic [[ultramarine]] or [[cobalt blue]]; and [[ivory black]], [[sienna]] and Mars brown".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.keenewilson.com/page/2947/john-singer-sargents-painting-techniques |title=John Singer Sargent's Painting Techniques |type=Blog |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=Keene Wilson Fine Art |access-date=April 14, 2023}}{{unreliable source?|date=April 2023}}</ref>

Around 1890, Sargent painted two daring non-commissioned portraits as show pieces—one of actress [[Ellen Terry]] as [[Lady Macbeth]] and one of the popular Spanish dancer ''[[Carmencita|La Carmencita]]''.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 79.</ref> Sargent was elected an associate of the [[Royal Academy]], and was made a full member three years later.

[[File:Edinburgh NGS Singer Sargent Lady Agnew.JPG|thumb|left|upright|''[[Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (painting)|Lady Agnew of Lochnaw]]'', 1893, [[Scottish National Gallery]], Edinburgh.]]

In the 1890s, he averaged fourteen portrait commissions per year, none more beautiful than the genteel ''Lady Agnew of Lochnaw'', 1892. His portrait of Mrs. Hugh Hammersley (''[[:commons:Image:Mrs Hugh Hammersley.jpg|Mrs. Hugh Hammersley]]'', 1892) was equally well received for its lively depiction of one of London's most notable hostesses. As a portrait painter in the grand manner, Sargent had unmatched success; he portrayed subjects who were at once ennobled and often possessed of nervous energy. Sargent was referred to as "the [[Van Dyck]] of our times".<ref>Ormond (1998), pp. 28–35, 1998.</ref>

Although Sargent was an American expatriate, he returned to the United States many times, often to answer the demand for commissioned portraits. Sargent exhibited nine of his portraits in the [[Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)|Palace of Fine Arts]] at the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago.<ref>[https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/2018/07/22/john-singer-sargent/ John Singer Sargent at the World's Columbian Exposition], World's Fair Chicago 1893.</ref>

Sargent painted a series of three portraits of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]. The second, ''Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson and his Wife'' (1885), was one of his best known.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.jssgallery.org/Paintings/Robert_Louis_Stevenson_and_His_Wife.htm |title=Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife |publisher=JSS Virtual Gallery |access-date=July 27, 2017}}</ref> He also completed portraits of two U.S. presidents: [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and [[Woodrow Wilson]]. In 1896, the Trustees of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] commissioned Sargent to produce a portrait of [[Henry Gurdon Marquand]]. Marquand served as the second president of the museum, and was instrumental in its founding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Singer Sargent {{!}} Henry G. Marquand {{!}} American |url= https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12108 |access-date=September 11, 2023 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|date= 1897 }}</ref> In 1888, Sargent released his portrait of [[Alice Vanderbilt Morris|Alice Vanderbilt Shepard]], great-granddaughter of [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]].<ref>Exhibit at the [[Amon Carter Museum]] in [[Fort Worth, Texas]]</ref> Many of his most important works are in museums in the United States. In 1897, a friend sponsored a famous portrait in oil of Mr. and Mrs. [[I. N. Phelps Stokes]], by Sargent, as a wedding gift.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://qag.qld.gov.au/education/education_resources/education_kit/American_Impressionism_and_Realism_Virtual_tour/studios_and_portraits |title=John Singer Sargent 1856–1925. Mr and Mrs IN Phelps Stokes 1897, Oil on canvas |publisher=Studios and portraits – Queensland Art Gallery – Gallery of Modern Art |access-date=September 3, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110720021250/http://qag.qld.gov.au/education/education_resources/education_kit/American_Impressionism_and_Realism_Virtual_tour/studios_and_portraits |archive-date=July 20, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/38.104 |title=Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1897, by John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925). Oil on canvas. |publisher=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=2011 |access-date=September 3, 2011}}</ref> Jean Zimmerman documents the creation of the Stokes portrait in her dual biography of the couple, ''Love, Fiercely''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zimmerman |first=Jean |title=Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-15-101447-7 |location=New York |pages=119–130}}</ref>

In 1898, Asher Wertheimer, a wealthy Jewish art dealer living in London, commissioned from Sargent a series of a dozen portraits of his family, the artist's largest commission from a single patron. The [[Wertheimer portraits]] reveal a pleasant familiarity between the artist and his subjects. Even though Wertheimer bequeathed most of the paintings to the National Gallery,<ref>Ormond (1998), p. 148, 1998.</ref> nowadays they are on display at the Tate Britain.

====Twentieth-century portraits====

By 1900, Sargent was at the height of his fame. Cartoonist [[Max Beerbohm]] completed one of his seventeen caricatures of Sargent, making well known to the public the artist's paunchy physique.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 97.</ref><ref>Little (1998), p. 12.</ref> Although only in his forties, Sargent began to travel more and to devote relatively less time to portrait painting. His ''An Interior in Venice'' (1900), a portrait of four members of the Curtis family in their elegant palatial home, ''[[Palazzo Barbaro]]'', was a resounding success. But, [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler|Whistler]] did not approve of the looseness of Sargent's brushwork, which he summed up as "smudge everywhere".<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 101.</ref> One of Sargent's last major portraits in his bravura style was that of [[Lord Ribblesdale (Sargent)|Lord Ribblesdale]], in 1902, finely attired in an elegant hunting uniform. Between 1900 and 1907, Sargent continued his high productivity, which included, in addition to dozens of oil portraits, hundreds of portrait drawings at about $400 each.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 118.</ref> In 1901, he purchased the next door property to his home in [[Tite Street]], to create a larger studio.<ref name="vch" />

In 1907, at the age of fifty-one, Sargent officially closed his studio. Relieved, he stated: "Painting a portrait would be quite amusing if one were not forced to talk while working.... What a nuisance having to entertain the sitter and to look happy when one feels wretched."<ref>Olson (1986), p. 227.</ref> In that same year, Sargent painted his modest and serious self-portrait, his last, for the celebrated self-portrait collection of the [[Uffizi Gallery]] in Florence, Italy.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 124.</ref>

Sargent made several summer visits to the Swiss Alps with his sisters [[Emily Sargent]], an accomplished painter in her own right, and Violet Sargent (Mrs Ormond) and also Violet's daughters Rose-Marie and Reine, who were the subject of a number of paintings between 1906 and 1913 like ''The Black Brook'' (1908) or ''Nonchaloir (Repose)'' (1911).<ref name="McCouat">{{cite web |last=McCouat |first=Philip |title=Rose-Marie Ormond Sargent's Muse and 'the Most Charming Girl That Ever Lived' |url= http://www.artinsociety.com/rose-marie-ormond-sargentrsquos-muse-and-ldquothe-most-charming-girl-that-ever-livedrdquo.html# |website=Journal of Art in Society |access-date=July 8, 2020}}</ref>

[[File:John Singer Sargent - Repose.jpg|thumb|left| ''Nonchaloir (Repose)'', 1911. The model is Rose-Marie Ormond Michel, Sargent's  niece.]]
By the time Sargent finished his portrait of [[John D. Rockefeller]] in 1917, most critics began to consign him to the masters of the past, "a brilliant ambassador between his patrons and posterity". Modernists treated him more harshly, considering him completely out of touch with the reality of American life and with emerging artistic trends including [[Cubism]] and [[Futurism]].<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 131.</ref> Sargent quietly accepted the criticism, but refused to alter his negative opinions of modern art. He retorted: "[[Ingres]], [[Raphael]] and [[El Greco]], these are now my admirations, these are what I like."<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 133.</ref>

Sometime between 1917 and 1920, Sargent painted the portrait of [[Thomas McKeller]], a young African-American elevator operator and WWI veteran. The canvas was kept in the painter's studio until his death and only began to be displayed permanently to the public in 1986 when it was acquired by the [[Museum of Fine Arts in Boston]]. McKeller also posed as a model for the mythological murals that Sargent painted at the stairway and the rotunda of the MFA Boston and for the World War I memorial murals at Harvard's [[Widener Library]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.incollect.com/articles/boston-s-apollo-thomas-mckeller-and-john-singer-sargent |title=Boston's Apollo: Thomas McKellery and John Singer Sargent by Nathaniel Silver}}</ref>

In 1925, shortly before he died, Sargent painted his last oil portrait, a canvas of aristocrat [[Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston]]. The painting was purchased in 1936 by the [[Currier Museum of Art]], in Manchester, New Hampshire, where it has been on display since then.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://collections.currier.org/Obj13$170 |title=EmbARK Web Kiosk |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070928091652/http://collections.currier.org/Obj13%24170 |archive-date=September 28, 2007}}</ref>

===Watercolors===
{{Commons category-inline|Watercolor paintings by John Singer Sargent}}[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Gourds - John Singer Sargent.jpg|thumb|right|''Gourds'', 1906–1910, [[Brooklyn Museum]].]]

During Sargent's long career, he painted more than 2,000 watercolors, roving from the English countryside to Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida. Each destination offered pictorial stimulation and treasure. Even at his leisure, in escaping the pressures of the portrait studio, he painted with restless intensity, often painting from morning until night.

His hundreds of watercolors of Venice are especially notable, many done from the perspective of a [[gondola]]. His colors were sometimes extremely vivid and as one reviewer noted: "Everything is given with the intensity of a dream."<ref>Little (1998), p. 11.</ref> In the Middle East and North Africa Sargent painted [[Bedouins]], goatherds, and fishermen. In the last decade of his life, he produced many watercolors in [[Maine]], Florida, and in the [[American West]], of fauna, flora, and native peoples.

[[File:John Singer Sargent - The Chess Game.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''The Chess Game'', c.&nbsp;1907, Private Collection.]]

With his watercolors, Sargent was able to indulge his earliest artistic inclinations for nature, architecture, exotic peoples, and noble mountain landscapes. And it is in some of his late works where one senses Sargent painting most purely for himself. His watercolors were executed with a joyful fluidness. He also painted extensively family, friends, gardens, and fountains. In watercolors, he playfully portrayed his friends and family dressed in [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] costume, relaxing in brightly lit landscapes that allowed for a more vivid palette and experimental handling than did his commissions (''The Chess Game'', 1906).<ref>Prettejohn (1998), pp. 66–69.</ref> His first major solo exhibit of watercolor works was at the Carfax Gallery in London in 1905.<ref>Fairbrother (1994), p. 148.</ref> In 1909, he exhibited eighty-six watercolors in New York City, eighty-three of which were bought by the [[Brooklyn Museum]].<ref name="Ormond (1998), page 276, 1998">Ormond (1998), p. 276, 1998.</ref> [[Evan Charteris]] wrote in 1927:<ref>Little (1998), p. 110.</ref>

{{blockquote|To live with Sargent's water-colours is to live with sunshine captured and held, with the luster of a bright and legible world, "the refluent shade" and "the Ambient ardours of the noon".}}

Although not generally accorded the critical respect given [[Winslow Homer]], perhaps America's greatest watercolorist, scholarship has revealed that Sargent was fluent in the entire range of opaque and transparent watercolor technique, including the methods used by Homer.<ref>Little (1998), p. 17.</ref>

===Other work===

[[File:John Singer Sargent - Atlas and the Hesperides, 1922-1925.jpg|thumb|upright|right|''Atlas and the Hesperides'', 1922–1925, mural, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]]]

As a concession to the insatiable demand of wealthy patrons for portraits, Sargent dashed off hundreds of rapid charcoal portrait sketches, which he called "Mugs". Forty-six of these, spanning the years 1890–1916, were exhibited at the [[Royal Society of Portrait Painters]] in 1916.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.jssgallery.org/Resources/Exhibitions/1916_Royal_Society_of_Portrait_Painters.htm |title=Exhibitions – 1916, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, hosted at the Grafton Galleries |website=www.jssgallery.org}}</ref>

All of Sargent's murals are to be found in the Boston/Cambridge area in Massachusetts. They are in the [[Boston Public Library, McKim Building|Boston Public Library]], the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|Museum of Fine Arts]], and Harvard's [[Widener Library]]. Sargent's largest scale works are the mural decorations ''Triumph of Religion'' that grace the Boston Public Library, depicting the history of religion and the gods of polytheism.<ref>[http://www.sargentmurals.bpl.org The Sargent Murals at the Boston Public Library] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050602080145/http://www.sargentmurals.bpl.org/ |date=June 2, 2005 }}</ref> They were attached to the walls of the library by means of [[marouflage]]. He worked on the cycle for almost thirty years but never completed the final mural. Sargent drew on his extensive travels and museum visits to create a dense art historical mélange. The murals were most recently restored in 2003–2004 by a team from the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, [[Harvard Art Museums]].<ref>Khandekar, Pocobene & Smith (2009).</ref>

[[File:John Singer Sargent, Synagogue, 1919.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Synagogue'', 1919, mural, [[Boston Public Library]]]]

Sargent worked on the murals from 1895 through 1919; they were intended to show religion's (and society's) progress from pagan superstition up through the ascension of Christianity, concluding with a painting depicting Jesus delivering the [[Sermon on the Mount]]. But Sargent's paintings of "The Church" and "[[Synagogue (John Singer Sargent)|The Synagogue]]", installed in late 1919, inspired a debate about whether the artist had represented Judaism in a stereotypical, or even an anti-Semitic, manner.<ref>"New Painting at Public Library Stirs Jews to Vigorous Protest". Donald Hendersonsyn ''The Boston Globe'', November 9, 1919, p. 48.</ref> Drawing upon iconography that was used in medieval paintings, Sargent portrayed Judaism and the synagogue as a blind, ugly hag, and Christianity and the church as a lovely, radiant young woman. He also failed to understand how these representations might be problematic for the Jews of Boston; he was both surprised and hurt when the paintings were criticized.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bpl.org/central/sargenttriumph.htm |title=BPL - Art -- Sargent Murals |access-date=July 31, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121006175232/http://www.bpl.org/central/sargenttriumph.htm |archive-date=October 6, 2012}}</ref> The paintings were objectionable to Boston Jews since they seemed to show Judaism defeated, and Christianity triumphant.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.forward.com/articles/129815/ |title=Jenna Weissman Joselit: Restoring the 'American Sistine Chapel'... How Sargent's 'Synagogue' Provoked a Nation – Forward.com |date=August 4, 2010 |work=The Jewish Daily Forward}}</ref> The Boston newspapers also followed the controversy, noting that while many found the paintings offensive, not everyone agreed. In the end, Sargent abandoned his plan to finish the murals, and the controversy eventually died down.

Upon his return to England in 1918 after a visit to the United States, Sargent was commissioned as a war artist by the British [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]]. In his large painting ''[[Gassed (painting)|Gassed]]'' and in many watercolors, he depicted scenes from the [[World War I|Great War]].<ref>Little (1998), p. 135.</ref> Sargent had been affected by the death of his niece Rose-Marie in the shelling of the [[Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais|St Gervais church]], Paris, on Good Friday 1918.<ref name="McCouat" />