John Singer Sargent Watercolors in Venice

John Singer Sargent is considered worldwide one of the finest, inspired and most important American expatriate painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a master of the bravura brushstroke in oil and an exquisite draftsman whose drawings and watercolors were completed with simplicity and fluid splendor.

The portraiture of Whistler and Sargent were in great demand by members of high society worldwide during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and together with Boldini, the threesome formed a triumvirate that was internationally influential and respected. Among Sargent’s most famous devotees were Sorolla y Bastida, Anders Zorn, John Lavery, Irving Wiles and Albert Besnard but his influence was extremely wide spread.

Born in Florence, Italy in 1856 of American parents, his address was Paris until 1886 and then London. Sargent studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (1871-1872); the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris; privately with Leon Bonnat and Carolus-Duran in Paris (until 1879). He won his first award at the Paris Salon (1878) and continued to win gold medals and honors throughout his life."