John Singer Sargent: Subjects & Themes
Browse works by subject category
Landscapes
Sargent landscapes in oil and watercolour, from boyhood views of the Swiss Alps to Egyptian cliffs, Spanish plains, Scottish hills and the Florida palmettos of 1917.
43 worksNude
Charcoal studies of the nude figure for Sargent's murals - Apollo, Orpheus, Phaethon, the Winds, Judgment and Hell - drawn for the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
23 worksPortraits
Portraits by Sargent in paint and pencil, including Madame X, Henry G. Marquand, Violet Sargent and studies of sitters met on his travels.
21 worksMountains
Alpine glaciers, peaks and passes by Sargent, from the Eiger and Mürren sketches of 1870 to later watercolours of snowfields and mountain streams.
16 worksTrees
Sargent's studies of trees: Spanish and Italian gardens, Florida palmettos, treetops against the sky and the shattered trunks of the 1918 Western Front.
16 worksMilitary
Sargent's First World War studies: drawings for Gassed, General Officers of World War I and the Harvard memorial, plus motorcycles and battlefield sketches from 1918.
15 worksAnimals
Cattle, oxen and mules drawn and painted by Sargent, from early sketchbook studies to the army animals he recorded in France in 1918.
14 worksVenice
Sargent's Venice in watercolour and oil - the Piazzetta, the Campo dei Frari, gondola moorings on the Grand Canal and quiet backstreets and bridges.
12 worksDrapery
Studies of draped figures for Sargent's murals - prophets, the Rosary mysteries, Astronomy and Philosophy - showing how he worked out the fall of cloth.
11 worksBoats
Boats in Sargent's sketchbooks and watercolours: gondolas, sailboats, fishermen with nets and shipboard studies from his Atlantic crossings.
10 worksHeads
9 worksHouses
9 worksReligion
Studies for Sargent's Triumph of Religion murals at the Boston Public Library, from the Frieze of Prophets to the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary.
9 worksArchitecture
Architectural studies by Sargent - Florentine bridges and villas, Venetian quays, Cairo streets and Frascati terraces.
8 works