John Singer Sargent was born on January 12, 1856. He was an American painter, though he spent the majority of his life in Europe. He was best known for his portraits and created about 900 oil paintings and 2,000 watercolors.
As a boy, Sargent loved to sketch. Each of his parents was artistic, and his mother encouraged his skills by giving him sketchbooks. He liked to copy pictures of ships and draw detailed landscapes. When he was a young teen, he started to take watercolor lessons. Though he did not embrace formal schooling, he did become proficient in various arts and music, as well as languages. When he was about 20, he took lessons from Carolus-Duran and later entered the École des Beaux-Arts, an esteemed art school in France. Though in his early life Sargent had most enjoyed landscapes, Duran influenced him to get into portrait painting, which was much more widely desired and was a better financial approach to art. His career took off when he delved into that subject matter.
Below are shown The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy; Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood;
Portrait of Rosina Ferrara; and The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.
