Customer Reviews

Sargent and Italy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ordered unseen and then attended exhibit. I was dissatisfied with color prints before exhibit and really disappointed afterwards. A graphic artist friend refused to buy the book after seing the color reproductions

I just returned with a friend from the Sargent and Italy exhibit , and I had purchased this book before going and thought the repoductions lacked vibrancy and did little for me, and after seeing the exhibit my thoughts were confirmed and I was even more disappointed , and a friend of mine who is a retired graphic artist and attended the exhibit would not purchase the book based on the reproductions

SARGENT IN ITALY does what many catalogues set out to accomplish but few achieve - document a magnificent exhibition while creating an art history book of great substance. The catalogue for the travelling exhibition SARGENT AND ITALY mirrors the elegance of the painter's touch, the intense infatuation and observation of the painter's favorite places (Venice in particular), and the intellectual atmosphere in which all of these works were created. Everyone knows of John Singer Sargent's finesse with the portraits of the wealthy and with figure painting in the studio and out on location, but few have the knowledge that Sargent found just as much life and senusality in the landscape as he did in the beautifully gowned patronesses of his career. Author Robertson is careful to include the treasurable quotes from the works of Henry James and other writers which flank many of the paintings in the exhibition and in the book. James and Sargent were close friends and colleagues, and that quality of shared observation helps make this show and this book the successes they are. The only minor flaw in the book is the quality of color reproduction which tends toward the muddy, dim side - hardly what this painter of light was all about. But the paintngs here are in other volumes where they are not as graced with the written word as they are here. A fine exhibition and a very fine catalogue/book.