Re: John Singer Sargents Painting Technique

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Re: John Singer Sargents Painting Technique

In Reply to: John Singer Sargents Painting Technique posted by Dan on 07/31/00 at 12:16 PM:

>>>I admire Mr. Sargents paintings very much, and would like to find out what his technique for portrature was<<<

His "technique" was based in the teachings of Carolus-Duran, who advocated the precise identification of the Values in the subject and an equally precise mixing of that value in paint. Much of the intial training was in almost monochrome, with color always playing a decidedly secondary role. The use of black in the color mixtures was very important. Carolus-Duran stressed the idea of careful observation and encouraged his students to place their easels randomly and paint whatever fell in front of the easel. Mixed lighting situations and dappled light were favorites for training the eye.

John Sargent's painting method was simplicity itself. The most detailed description of his method is a hand written manuscipt in the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It has never been made available to the public, but it does describe how he mixed large amounts of paint on his palette before commencing to paint. They were decribed as the size of a baseball. He would observe carefully, decide the value and hue of the stroke, as well as the shape and simply lay it in. If he didn't like it, he would scrape it out with a painting knife and redo the stroke, often many times until he got it right. By scraping, he left a ghost of the stroke underneath and that often provided a solid foundation for the final stroke.

His method was very direct, with very few overpainted areas and even fewer glazes. As a result, his paintings have held up fairly well.

There are no secret mediums, just a little stand oil and turpentine, no special brushes or unusual paints, just a relatively standard palette of colors in the hands of an exceptionally skilled and devoted painter.