Fashioned by Sargent
Fashioned by Sargent now on display at Tate Britain under the title, Sargent and Fashion, celebrates his striking portrait paintings. Sargent used fashion as a powerful tool to express identity and personality. He regularly chose the outfits of his collaborators or manipulated their clothing. This innovative use of costume was central to his artwork – for example, tugging a heavy coat tighter around a man to emphasise his figure or letting a dress strap sensuously slip from a women's shoulder.
We look back at Kate Cavendish's review of the Museum of Fine Art Boston's display of Fashioned by Sargent and urge you to see Sargent and Fashion before it closes at Tate Britain on 7 July 2024.
Fashioned by Sargent: a review by Kate Cavendish
In Edith Wharton’s Custom of the Country, a great fuss is made over Mrs. Undine Spragg Marvell as she poses for a portrait by Mr. Claud Walsingham Popple: “She was dressed for the sitting in something faint and shining, above which the long curves of her neck looked dead white in the cold light of the studio; and her hair, all a shadowless rosy gold, was starred with a hard glitter of diamonds.” This fictional description, from the 1913 novel, may well have alluded to works by John Singer Sargent, who flourished as a portrait painter in the 1880s. An intimate exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, takes viewers into those sittings by way of the subjects’ attire: Fashioned by Sargent explores the clothing Sargent painted, complemented by displays of the actual (or closely related) garments in the paintings. Part of that exploration involves learning how Sargent manipulated the clothing to produce a desired effect: these portraits were not of fashion but were, as the title indicates, fashioned by the artist himself. The opening painting and garment illustrate this beautifully. Located in a gallery painted a deep pink-brown, like a puff of rouge, Lady Sassoon’s black taffeta opera cloak from the House of Worth stands beside her portrait.
Image: Installation with woman’s evening dress, House of Worth, French, about 1895, silk damask. Pair of women’s shoes, L. Perchellet, French, 1895, Silk satin, leather, sequins and beads. Dress, House of Worth, French, about 1880 pearl-embroidered white bengaline. Image above: Installation with evening dress, about 1887-1902, silk velvet with silk plain weave lining and portrait of Mrs. Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy), John Singer Sargent, 1887, oil on canvas, 86 x 60 cm.
The cloak is embellished with ribbons and net, but what stands out is the tantalising glimpse of pink silk lining from inside the generous sleeves. Sargent noticed that too, as the completed portrait features one side of the cloak rolled back, the pink lining curving across and down Lady Sassoon’s body. After this standalone pairing, the exhibit loads its brush with paint and fills the following galleries with portraits and garments, from gowns to theatrical costumes to Kashmir shawls. The first gallery recreates Sargent’s studio, where he preferred to paint in black and white: gentlemen were encouraged to wear dark suits; ladies were requested to wear black or white.
So Madame Ramón Subercaseaux sits in half profile at her piano, wearing a white afternoon dress with black lapels and buttons, one red flower tucked in her bun, another between her fingers. While the decorative back of her skirt is concealed, Sargent arranged the ruffles and flounces in front to create a dramatic, flowing black-and-white train. Here too Eleanora O’Donnell Iselin, wife of the wealthy Adrian Iselin, wears, at Sargent’s request, a black day dress with jet appliqué instead of one of her colourful Parisian gowns. The effect is still sumptuous, as Sargent creates black silk by layering white over black, and jet beads with brushstrokes that catch the light.
Image: Installation with Costume for Carmen Dauset Moreno (Carmencita) about 1890, silk satin and net, trimmed with silver gilt thread, spangles, and beads. La Car mencita, John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925) Oil on canvas, 229 x 140 cm.
The following gallery, “The Art of Dress,” is introduced by a quote from Wharton’s Age of Innocence, where Newland Archer reflects on the “armor” of women’s dress. This section includes three dresses by the House of Worth, a taupe pearl-embroidered bengaline with a bodice that defines a waist via a long point, an acidic yellow silk damask evening dress with enormous puff sleeves, and a sapphire blue velvet walking dress with bustle, all owned by Sarah Choate Sears, who is painted, despite her penchant for colour, drama, and trimmings, in white, lost in contemplation, while holding a bouquet of pastel roses. While the dresses on display might suggest armor, the one in the portrait speaks of peace.
Also included in this gallery are Sargent’s portraits of young people, the arresting 17-year-old Elsie Palmer in her white, loosely fitting tea dress, whose long pleats mirror those vertical linen folds on the wall paneling, shoes that echo ballet slippers on her feet. Here too is 6-year-old Helen Sears, whose portrait has graced the cover of Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, wearing a simplified version of her own dress with ruffled collar and hem, letting pastel hydrangeas provide all the embellishment. William Morris wallpaper adorns the next gallery, called “Sporting with Gender,” which features blurrings of gender through clothing. Presented here is a portrait of the young illustrator W. Graham Robertson, looking every inch the dandy in his slim, long black wool coat. Nearby is Dr. Pazzi, Parisian gynaecologist, painted at home in a long crimson robe and Turkish slippers, a style borrowed from women’s portraits. In contrast, Alice Brisbane (Mrs. Charles Thursby) appears as a New Woman, poised on the edge of a chair, hands on hips as if she is about to rise and seize the day. She’s wearing a short black jacket with a green hue over a white shirt and lilac bow, the result suggesting the green, white, and lavender suffragette colours, which match her passion for social reform.
Image: John Singer Sargent Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1864-1932) 1892 National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the aid of the Cowan Smith Bequest Fund 1925.
The “Portraiture and Performance” gallery opens with an exquisite portrait of the Spanish dancer La Car mencita, standing still in her yellow beaded dress and shawl, which appear beside her painting. Perhaps the most striking painting in this gallery is Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth. Sargent chose a pose that did not appear in the play – Lady Macbeth holding a crown above her head – which shows off the long “beetle wing” sleeves of her dress to dramatic effect.
That dress and cloak, both designed by Alice Laura Comyns-Carr, are next to the painting, the crochet green dress adorned with shiny beetles to give the impression of chain mail. These portraits of performers reveal how any portrait is a performance. The penultimate gallery, “Fashioning Power,” looks at how clothing can reveal one’s role in society. As the introductory text to the gallery states, Sargent conveyed his sitters’ “rank and their distinctive personalities through clothing.” For instance, Sargent painted John D. Rockefeller sitting in a simple Windsor chair, writing to a friend that he saw Rockefeller as a “mediaeval saint”; he painted Sybil Sassoon, the countess of Rocksavage, in a dress from the House of Worth that recalls one worn by the queen of Spain in a 16th-century portrait. The gown, made from silk velvet, silk satin, and metal thread lace, which is on display, was commissioned by Sargent.
Finally, “Outside Fashion” gathers together Sargent’s white dresses, often worn by his sisters; white suits, as worn by Charles Deering of International Harvester; as well as his depictions of paisley throws and shawls. Sargent liked to give these pashminas as gifts; the only remaining one, which he gave to Sybil Sassoon, is on loan here. In these images Sargent explores the movement and texture of white fabric, depicting it through blue tones, with his sitters frequently outdoors to reflect the sun and shadow. The exhibit, curated by Erica E. Hirshler and organized with Tate Britain, is a stunning reminder of Sargent’s relationships with his sitters as depicted through their clothes. Sargent not only often selected the garments for these portraits but also manipulated them to produce the effect he desired, capturing not real life but his own vision of fashion.
Text by Kate Cavendish
Sargent and Fashion is on at Tate Britain until 7 July 2024. Find out more and plan your visit:
www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/sargent-and-fashion
We look back at Kate Cavendish's review of the Museum of Fine Art Boston's display of Fashioned by Sargent and urge you to see Sargent and Fashion before it closes at Tate Britain on 7 July 2024.
Fashioned by Sargent: a review by Kate Cavendish
In Edith Wharton’s Custom of the Country, a great fuss is made over Mrs. Undine Spragg Marvell as she poses for a portrait by Mr. Claud Walsingham Popple: “She was dressed for the sitting in something faint and shining, above which the long curves of her neck looked dead white in the cold light of the studio; and her hair, all a shadowless rosy gold, was starred with a hard glitter of diamonds.” This fictional description, from the 1913 novel, may well have alluded to works by John Singer Sargent, who flourished as a portrait painter in the 1880s. An intimate exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, takes viewers into those sittings by way of the subjects’ attire: Fashioned by Sargent explores the clothing Sargent painted, complemented by displays of the actual (or closely related) garments in the paintings. Part of that exploration involves learning how Sargent manipulated the clothing to produce a desired effect: these portraits were not of fashion but were, as the title indicates, fashioned by the artist himself. The opening painting and garment illustrate this beautifully. Located in a gallery painted a deep pink-brown, like a puff of rouge, Lady Sassoon’s black taffeta opera cloak from the House of Worth stands beside her portrait.
Image: Installation with woman’s evening dress, House of Worth, French, about 1895, silk damask. Pair of women’s shoes, L. Perchellet, French, 1895, Silk satin, leather, sequins and beads. Dress, House of Worth, French, about 1880 pearl-embroidered white bengaline. Image above: Installation with evening dress, about 1887-1902, silk velvet with silk plain weave lining and portrait of Mrs. Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy), John Singer Sargent, 1887, oil on canvas, 86 x 60 cm.
The cloak is embellished with ribbons and net, but what stands out is the tantalising glimpse of pink silk lining from inside the generous sleeves. Sargent noticed that too, as the completed portrait features one side of the cloak rolled back, the pink lining curving across and down Lady Sassoon’s body. After this standalone pairing, the exhibit loads its brush with paint and fills the following galleries with portraits and garments, from gowns to theatrical costumes to Kashmir shawls. The first gallery recreates Sargent’s studio, where he preferred to paint in black and white: gentlemen were encouraged to wear dark suits; ladies were requested to wear black or white.
So Madame Ramón Subercaseaux sits in half profile at her piano, wearing a white afternoon dress with black lapels and buttons, one red flower tucked in her bun, another between her fingers. While the decorative back of her skirt is concealed, Sargent arranged the ruffles and flounces in front to create a dramatic, flowing black-and-white train. Here too Eleanora O’Donnell Iselin, wife of the wealthy Adrian Iselin, wears, at Sargent’s request, a black day dress with jet appliqué instead of one of her colourful Parisian gowns. The effect is still sumptuous, as Sargent creates black silk by layering white over black, and jet beads with brushstrokes that catch the light.
Image: Installation with Costume for Carmen Dauset Moreno (Carmencita) about 1890, silk satin and net, trimmed with silver gilt thread, spangles, and beads. La Car mencita, John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925) Oil on canvas, 229 x 140 cm.
The following gallery, “The Art of Dress,” is introduced by a quote from Wharton’s Age of Innocence, where Newland Archer reflects on the “armor” of women’s dress. This section includes three dresses by the House of Worth, a taupe pearl-embroidered bengaline with a bodice that defines a waist via a long point, an acidic yellow silk damask evening dress with enormous puff sleeves, and a sapphire blue velvet walking dress with bustle, all owned by Sarah Choate Sears, who is painted, despite her penchant for colour, drama, and trimmings, in white, lost in contemplation, while holding a bouquet of pastel roses. While the dresses on display might suggest armor, the one in the portrait speaks of peace.
Also included in this gallery are Sargent’s portraits of young people, the arresting 17-year-old Elsie Palmer in her white, loosely fitting tea dress, whose long pleats mirror those vertical linen folds on the wall paneling, shoes that echo ballet slippers on her feet. Here too is 6-year-old Helen Sears, whose portrait has graced the cover of Henry James’s What Maisie Knew, wearing a simplified version of her own dress with ruffled collar and hem, letting pastel hydrangeas provide all the embellishment. William Morris wallpaper adorns the next gallery, called “Sporting with Gender,” which features blurrings of gender through clothing. Presented here is a portrait of the young illustrator W. Graham Robertson, looking every inch the dandy in his slim, long black wool coat. Nearby is Dr. Pazzi, Parisian gynaecologist, painted at home in a long crimson robe and Turkish slippers, a style borrowed from women’s portraits. In contrast, Alice Brisbane (Mrs. Charles Thursby) appears as a New Woman, poised on the edge of a chair, hands on hips as if she is about to rise and seize the day. She’s wearing a short black jacket with a green hue over a white shirt and lilac bow, the result suggesting the green, white, and lavender suffragette colours, which match her passion for social reform.
Image: John Singer Sargent Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1864-1932) 1892 National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased with the aid of the Cowan Smith Bequest Fund 1925.
The “Portraiture and Performance” gallery opens with an exquisite portrait of the Spanish dancer La Car mencita, standing still in her yellow beaded dress and shawl, which appear beside her painting. Perhaps the most striking painting in this gallery is Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth. Sargent chose a pose that did not appear in the play – Lady Macbeth holding a crown above her head – which shows off the long “beetle wing” sleeves of her dress to dramatic effect.
That dress and cloak, both designed by Alice Laura Comyns-Carr, are next to the painting, the crochet green dress adorned with shiny beetles to give the impression of chain mail. These portraits of performers reveal how any portrait is a performance. The penultimate gallery, “Fashioning Power,” looks at how clothing can reveal one’s role in society. As the introductory text to the gallery states, Sargent conveyed his sitters’ “rank and their distinctive personalities through clothing.” For instance, Sargent painted John D. Rockefeller sitting in a simple Windsor chair, writing to a friend that he saw Rockefeller as a “mediaeval saint”; he painted Sybil Sassoon, the countess of Rocksavage, in a dress from the House of Worth that recalls one worn by the queen of Spain in a 16th-century portrait. The gown, made from silk velvet, silk satin, and metal thread lace, which is on display, was commissioned by Sargent.
Finally, “Outside Fashion” gathers together Sargent’s white dresses, often worn by his sisters; white suits, as worn by Charles Deering of International Harvester; as well as his depictions of paisley throws and shawls. Sargent liked to give these pashminas as gifts; the only remaining one, which he gave to Sybil Sassoon, is on loan here. In these images Sargent explores the movement and texture of white fabric, depicting it through blue tones, with his sitters frequently outdoors to reflect the sun and shadow. The exhibit, curated by Erica E. Hirshler and organized with Tate Britain, is a stunning reminder of Sargent’s relationships with his sitters as depicted through their clothes. Sargent not only often selected the garments for these portraits but also manipulated them to produce the effect he desired, capturing not real life but his own vision of fashion.
Text by Kate Cavendish
Sargent and Fashion is on at Tate Britain until 7 July 2024. Find out more and plan your visit:
www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/sargent-and-fashion