The standard line against painter John Singer Sargent goes like this: a very friendly painter of incredible technique,but runt substance who flattered the wealthy and famous with decadently beautiful portraiture — a Victorian Andrea del Sarto of sorts whose reach rarely exceeded his considerable artistic grasp. A new exhibition of Sargent’s work and the accompanying catalogues argue that he was much more than a painter of pretty faces. Instead, the exhibition Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends and catalogues challenge us to see Sargent’s omnivorous intellect, or which swallowed up nascent modernist movements not just in painting,but also in literature, music, or theater. Sargent the omnivore’s dilemma thus lies in being too many things at once and tasking us to multitask with him.
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Source: bigthink.com