John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was the most lauded portraitist of his day. At the height of his career, he painted the crème de la crème of society: Gilded Age titans of industry, American dollar princesses, and aristocratic Edwardian beauties. The foundations of his artistic practice can be traced to his time in Paris, where he arrived in 1874 at age 18 and stayed for a decade. He drew inspiration from his teacher, contemporary painters, a varied social circle of creatives and patrons, and art history.
“Sargent and Paris,” a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on view through Aug. 3, 2025, explores this productive, essential period of his work. The show culminates in a presentation of Sargent’s pivotal painting “Madame X,” but the exhibition’s ingenuity is that it places the artwork in the context of his rich, early Parisian portraits.
