Born On This Day- January 12th... Favorite Artist John Singer Sargent

The question remains- was he homosexual? I always felt that you could tell from his work & sensitivities that he was gay, but we will really never know about one of my favorite American artists- John Singer Sargent. It seems almost unbelievable, but I once owned a small pencil sketch of Ethel Barrymore by this  favorite artist. It was signed- ‘to Ethel, from JS Sargent 1911”, & it was presented in a small silver deco frame. It was a gift from actress Fay Wray with whom I had an acquaintance in the early 1970s.  Soon after, I gave this piece away to someone that I thought I was in love with. We no longer speak. A lesson learned? No, I continue to give things that I love to people that I love.

The iconic full-length portrait of New Orleans beauty Virginie Gautreau (1884) brought Sargent notoriety. Considered brazen, the portrait of Madame Gautreau in a strapless black gown with a plunging neckline was savaged by the critics as scandalous.To escape the scandal created by the Portrait of Madame X, in 1886 Sargent moved to London, where his paintings triumphed at the Royal Academy & where he established a brilliant career as a society & celebrity portraitist, doing more than 700 portrait paintings.

He had many friends, including Henry James & Robert Louis Stevenson, & associated with aesthetes & dandies such as Oscar Wilde & Robert de Montesquiou. Sargent was known as distant & reserved. As far as we know, he had no great romantic attachments, only flirtations with women & deep friendships with men.

Rumors circulated about his relationship with his long-time model & assistant Nicola d'Inverno, but no physical relationship has been documented. At his death, his family destroyed his personal papers, so the evidence for Sargent's homosexuality resides largely in his work, especially his genre paintings & male nudes. The Husband I & chanced on an exhibit of pencil sketches by Sargent at a small gallery at NYU in the late 1990s. I turned to the Husband (who knows his art history) & asked- “...was Sargent gay? I mean look at the love that went into these male nudes?” I like to think that he was gay. His work certainly speaks to me.