SINGER SARGENT'S SPAIN AT THE SALON

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925)[1] was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

Here is his "El Jaleo (Spanish Dancer)", c. 1879–82, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, USA. His evocation of Spain through images of Spanish dancing and music is very effective. The painting was inspired by a five-month trip Sargent made through Spain and North Africa in 1879, which also yielded a smaller oil painting, "The Spanish Dance" (Hispanic Society of America).

After the initial exhibition of El Jaleo in 1882 at the French Salon, John Singer Sargent became, as one writer put it, "the most talked-about painter in Paris." Some critics in 1882 said that the painting caused Sargent to join the ranks of the French Impressionists. A critic for the Le Figaro called the painting "one of the most original and strongest works of the present Salon." Some writers hailed the painting as clever, while others dismissed it as a vagary of the artist. Today El Jaleo is considered to be one of John Singer Sargent's most memorable works.

This post is part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.