NEW YORK, NY.- John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was one of the leading painters of his generation. His captivating portraits are universally admired for their insight into character, radiance of light and color, and painterly fluency and immediacy. Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, written by Richard Ormond, one of the foremost authorities on the artist, showcases Sargent’s cosmopolitan career in a new light—through his bold portraits of artists, writers, actors, and musicians, many of them his close friends—giving us a picture of the artist as an intellectual and connoisseur of the music, art, and literature of his day. Whether depicted in well-appointed interiors or en plein air, the cast of characters includes many famous subjects, among them Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Gabriel Fauré, W. B. Yeats, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Henry James. Because many of the sitters were his close friends, the artist was able to take a more informal, intimate approach to these portraits than in his formal commissions—and not only are the works penetrating studies of character, they are also records of friendships, allegiances, and influences. Accompanying a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London from February 12 through May 25, 2015, and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 30 to October 4, 2015, this is the first book devoted to the entire career of this renowned American painter through these brilliant portraits.

Structured thematically and according to the places Sargent lived and worked—Paris, London, New York, Italy, and the Swiss Alps—Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends unites informative essays by noted scholars with a wealth of imagery to offer fresh insights into Sargent’s life and work. The book also includes drawings, early works, a richly illustrated chronology, and new research, making it one of the most comprehensive volumes on this renowned American painter.

Richard Ormond is a renowned Sargent scholar and co-author (with Elaine Kilmurray) of the multi-volume catalogue raisonné of the work of Sargent, who was his great-uncle. Ormond is the former Deputy Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the former Director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Elaine Kilmurray is the co-author and research director of the John Singer Sargent Catalogue Raisonné Project. Trevor Fairbrother is an independent writer and art curator and noted Sargent specialist. Barbara Dayer Gallati is Curator Emerita, American Art, Brooklyn Museum. Erica E. Hirshler is Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Marc Simpson is an independent art historian and curator, and former Associate Director of the Graduate Program in the History of Art at Williams College, and former Curator of American Art at the Clark Art Institute, both in Williamstown, MA. H. Barbara Weinberg is Curator Emerita of American paintings and sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Professor Emerita of Art History at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.