The Lure of the Exotic: An Examination of John Singer Sargent's Orientalist Mode

Abstract

This paper investigates John Singer Sargent’s Orientalist paintings, branding them as a new mode of the pictorial genre. From a peripatetic upbringing emerged an artist with a penchant for the exotic. A painter-traveller above all else, Sargent sought to record his visible delight with the world. Not content to replicate the successes of men before him, Sargent set out on an artistic course to discover his own aesthetic and announce it to the world. His first Orientalist painting exhibited at the Salon, Fumée d’Ambre Gris (1880), was notable for its tonal virtuosity. In preparation for a grand mural scheme for the new Boston Public Library, Sargent embarked on a thorough investigation of the Near East. Although Sargent believed that the Triumph of Religion murals (1890-1919) would be the culmination of his training and background, it is his unique preparatory paintings and watercolors that fulfill this hope. They reveal the most about his interests, instincts, and artistic development, and serve as a springboard towards modernism. In the watercolors of Bedouins (c. 1891-1906), the Javanese dancer studies (1889), the costume play paintings from Purtud (1907), and the “Cashmere series” (c. 1908-11), Sargent utilizes vibrant color, impressionistic brushwork, and the technical devices of foreshortening and cropping to repackage Orientalism for the twentieth century. By looking closely at John Singer Sargent’s Orientalist course, a context is given for his non-commissioned work. Sargent’s paintings completed abroad are an underlying attribute in his creative force. Orientalism was not a fleeting diversion for Sargent; it fueled his evolution as an artist.