Sargent’s touch—the light and textures of his British Impressionist Painting
by Dawn Lui
One of my favourite paintings of John Singer Sargent, his scandalous piece Madame X, is not only a masterpiece because of the controversy it had caused in nineteenth century Britain and France, but also its beautiful textures of light and atmosphere. Despite the iconic imagery of Madame X as the most famous work among Sargent’s catalogue raisonné, it is his impressionist work inspired by the French that has brought about the introduction of Modernism in Britain and the birth of British Impressionism. One of his most influential works in bringing forth the French style to the British is his painting Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose from 1885 to 1886. This article thus hopes to explain the history of British Impressionism and Sargent’s career through the significance and aesthetics of Sargent’s most masterful play of light, texture and atmosphere that is Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.
The academic values of a painting within British society in the 1880s could be summarized by the critiques and writings of artist Edward Armitage. Armitage’s lectures and writings demonstrate that British “academy” art during the era has strict policing adhering to both subject and aesthetic standards. Despite the difficulty in categorizing a linear artistic principle within the Royal Academy in late nineteenth century Britain with its wide-ranging styles from classical and Renaissance traditions to Aestheticism, the academy still held onto multiple academic standards on paintings with its style and subject. According to Armitage’s writings, the “subject” of painting is one of the important criteria among academy critics. The academy, upholding its status as a prestigious institution of art and criticism, focuses on the importance of the choice of subject when producing a painting. Where academics seldom mesh with the desires or the market, or to easily change their subjects depending on the changing tastes of the mass public. Therefore, “subject-less paintings” which were popular among the public at the time were regarded as “trivial” and lesser than subjects such as religious iconography, ancient mythology and personages in history or literature which were much more favoured by the Royal Academy.
On the other hand, the technique and style paintings were also heavily policed by the academy. The notion of unity is featured to be an important element within an academic-approved piece of work. The academy’s idea of unity represents the level of finish of completion a painting has achieved. Where defined forms of anatomy such as fingers and toes and the values of shades and half-tones should be relative to each other, emphasizing on the unity between tone, value and definition of brushstrokes to depict the sfumato technique. With such detailed rules within the academy, one may think Sargent’s work’s ability to be accepted by both the public and the academy to be a result of a pivotal change in the taste of the public and the power of the academy. However, it is important to also acknowledge Sargent’s masterful display of balance between incorporating French Impressionist elements and appealing to the standards of the Royal Academy such as his work, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.
John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, oil paint of canvas, 1885-1886, Tate Musuem.
The intricacy of Sargent’s Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose lies in the delicate mix between traditional and modernist aesthetics and elements. The painting depicts the two daughters of illustrator Frederick Barnard: Polly and Dorothy Barnard gently lighting a Chinese lantern in each of their hands, surrounded by a lush scenery of carnations, roses and lilies. One of the most striking parts of his work is his gentle touch and blend between object, subject and light. Sargent carefully creates the ambient atmosphere of the lit lanterns through modelling with colour rather than lines. For example, he crafts the wrinkles and ruffles of the girls’ white dresses through gentle, unblended strokes of light peach. Therefore, Sargent in one hand defines their silhouette which also depicts the warm ambience of Chinese lanterns within an enclosed botanic space. However, his work still doesn’t reach the point where object and form dissolves into patterns of impasto pastels like the French, where he still provided a detailed, outlined faces of the girls, their lanterns and a few lilies around them to bring the viewer’s attention to both the surface and centre of the painting. Sargent’s choice of subject matter also plays into his mediating work between elements of French Impressionism and the Royal Academy.
Sargent depicted human subjects that tells a story—despite its mundanity, hence avoiding the heavily rejected idea of “subject-less” paintings such as landscapes or still life works of art. In Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, Sargent portrays an eventful subject-matter via an academic paradigm while incorporating contrasting elements of light and effect, in particularly his ability to depict diffused light and representation of space. In addition, its name, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, is also subversive on its own. It is unusual at the time to have a non-descriptive or lengthy title for a painting at the time, especially when the painting depicts an event including human subjects. His abstract, almost poetic name for his work challenges the viewer to see beyond the painting’s limitation as a “subject-painting”, bringing forth a refreshing perspective to perceive paintings through colours and visual aesthetic pleasure.
The success of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, including its acceptance by the Royal Academy not only present the painting as a representative piece in the evolution of British Modernism inspired by French Impressionism, but also a testimony to the slowly dissolving power and status of the academy. Thus, the beauty of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is not only in its historical importance, but its representation of hybridity and a solidified focus of aesthetics and the visual senses that truly brought forth the Modernist movement.