WHISTLER-SARGENT rived in Paris, he
was not only a
skilful
draftsman and
painter, the result of his study of the Italian masters, but also,— which has had perhaps an even greater influence upon his career, young as he was, he already had a refined and cultivated taste. This at once stood him
—
new
master, though a very skilful painter and excellent teacher, was otherwise a man of rather showy and superficial qualities. He too had in
good
stead, for his
studied in Italy, but later in Spain, and it was chiefly upon the lessons learned from Velasquez that he had
own
method. This method Sargent, being a youth of remarkable diligence with an unusual faculty for receiving impressions, soon abHe painted a portrait of his master, which sorbed. proved he had already acquired all that the latter could
founded
his
brilliant
give him. Then he went to Madrid and saw the work of Velasquez with his own eyes; subsequently visiting Holland, where he was greatly impressed with the portraits
by Franz Hals.
Let us
see
how
these various
influences are reflected in his work.
In the accompanying picture we may trace the
in-
fluence of Velasquez in the noble simplicity of the lines, in the ample dignity of the masses, in the single im-
makes and the pression which the whole composition the treatment of the quiet sumptuousness obtained by black and white costumes, a treatment at once grand and subtle. Moreover, the whole picture has the highbred feeling and stateliness of manner, the powerful di-
and at the same time self-restraint, that Sargent had found in the old Italian portraits. Yet the suggestion of the picture is thoroughly modern; not
rectness
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