James Whistler & John Singer Sargent
Most major American artists have studied in Europe, & many chose to remain abroad. Indeed, during the late 19th century, several of the world’s most influential painters were American expatriates.
James McNeill Whistler, 1834-1903, led the aesthetic movement that cultivated color harmonies & simplified shapes as “art for art’s sake.” When a boy, he took drawing lessons in St. Petersburg, Russia, & then learned print techniques while making government maps in Washington, D.C. Later in London, Paris, & Venice, Whistler endlessly refined & adjusted his prints & paintings, often taking years to complete his abstracted stylizations.
John Singer Sargent, 1856-1925, hailed on both sides of the Atlantic as a society portraitist, was educated in Florence, Rome, & Nice by his wealthy parents. His avant-garde style, founded on the bravura brushwork of the seventeenth-century old masters Frans Hals & Diego Velázquez, gained popular acclaim. Making a sensational debut in Paris in his early twenties, Sargent became famous for his rapid execution of oils & watercolors.
