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The Ten Greatest Portraits
Ever Painted
Ten immortal masterpieces
that tower over all the rest.
2. John Singer Sargent, 1856-1925
Madame X
Sargent's
standing among art historians and
critics has been steadily rising for
the past fifty years. At a recent
exhibition in New York ("Manet/Velázquez"),
the Metropolitan Museum placed the
great Spanish master's most important
works in immediate juxtaposition with
works by artists who had been influenced
by the Spaniard. Most of the artists
(most notably, Manet) suffered terribly
by the comparison. Not so Sargent.
His paintings appeared strong and
vibrant, looking even better by comparison
with Velázquez' finest offerings.
Sargent's rising stock thus rose even
higher. He considered Madame X,
painted in Paris in 1884 (when the
artist was 28), his finest work.
If the
title of this article were The
Ten Portraits Most Interesting to
Other Portrait Artists, all ten
might well be by Sargent. His hand-eye
coordination and his superhuman brush
handling have never been exceeded.
Given the immense volume of his professional
output, the creativity and ingenuity
displayed throughout the Sargent oeuvre
is quite amazing—there are no
two compositions alike. His insight
into the personalities of his sitters
stamps each Sargent portrait with
distinctiveness
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
City
Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1916.
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