John Singer Sargent Drawings at The Morgan Library & Museum

John Singer Sargent double self-portrait from 1902 when Sargent was 46.

   The Morgan Library and Museum, originally built by financier J.P. Morgan in 1906, is one of my favorite places in New York, and now it's featuring on exhibition on one of my favorite artists – what's not to like?
    I admire the refinement of John Singer Sargent's art, and the Morgan has mounted a show of  his charcoal drawings. But this isn't just a bunch of drawings!
     Sargent is of course famous for his large portrait paintings, like the striking Madame X and the gorgeous Wyndham sisters, which both can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But by 1907, Sargent had grown tired of producing these large, elaborate paintings, which could require up to more than ten sittings with the model(s). His portraits were still in demand however, so he turned to charcoal drawings, which were quicker and more spontaneous.
    For the first time ever, this show at The Morgan focuses on Sargent's charcoal drawings and gathers together 55 examples, some of which have never been exhibited before as they are in private collections. Walking through the gallery, I enjoyed the easy, breezy nature of the drawings. They seemed so fresh and spontaneous, almost like photographs capturing the subject, instead of the studied grandeur of Sargent's oil portraits. And though of course I'm sure they weren't, they appear to be effortless. The drawings possess that combination of ease and elegance that I love.
    At the top of this post is a double self-portrait by Sargent, who rarely produced a self-portrait. Good-looking chap.
      Here we have Sybil Sassoon from 1912. Sargent said she was the most beautiful woman he ever drew –

    This is Sargent's friend artist Paul-César Helleu – I like his charcoal grey clothes and his casual, relaxed posture as he reclines in a low armchair.

    Handsome Italian model Olimpio Fusco looks like he just stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue -

    I was so happy to see one of my favorite portraits of all time -- Sargent's drawing of Irish poet William Butler Yeats –

    I love everything about this portrait, including the floppy bow tie and shawl-colored jacket. Yeats is from Sligo, Ireland, which is where my great-grandfather Daniel O'Donnell hailed from before he landed in Herkimer, New York. Yeats wrote the most beautiful poem about Sligo called "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." I hope to get to Sligo some day. In the meantime, I recommend a trip to The Morgan to see John Singer Sargent. 

Henry James and Friends at the Morgan Library

An Interior in Venice (The Curtis Family) by John Singer Sargent, 1898. 
The Morgan Library and Museum is one of my favorite places in New York, and the arts at the turn of the last century is an era I love so I has very happy to visit a new exhibit at the Morgan called Henry James and American Painting. The great American writer Henry James, who lived mostly in London and Venice, was fascinated by artists and sculptors; in fact earlier in his career he had dabbled in painting and went to law school before he became a writer.
While he worked as a writer, he remained influenced by artists, and painted his scenes with words instead of brushstrokes. The exhibition at the Morgan explores James' friendships with artists and how they affected him. The show is co-curated by Irish author Colm Toibin, who wrote one of my very favorite books, the novel The Master, which is based on Henry James. Displayed in one room at the Morgan, the exhibit includes approximately fifty objects including paintings, watercolors, photographs, sculptures and manuscripts by artists John La Farge, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, and more.

Sargent painted this 1913 portrait of James upon the occasion of the writer's 70th birthday –

I also liked this portrait of James in a snappy polka dot bow tie by Ellen Gertrude Emmet Rand from 1900 –

Delightfully, James and Sargent were close friends. The writer and the artist shared much in common too; both were born in the United States and lived in Europe, captured the wealthy society of the day elegantly and deliciously in their respective media, and hid their homosexuality.

The connection between James and Sargent is evident in the gorgeous painting pictured at the top of this post. Sargent painted his cousin Daniel Sargent Curtis and his wife at home in Venice in the Palazzo Barbero where James was a guest. In fact, James wrote some of The Aspern Papers at a desk that is still housed in the palazzo today. James was a big fan of the palazzo's stunning Baroque interior and included a description of the salon in his novel The Wings of the Dove. The writer loved Sargent's romantic portrait of the Curtises, and wrote that he "absolutely and without reserve adored it." Alas, this gorgeous painting was not successful at the time. Mrs. Curtis felt it made her look too old and that her son was posed too casually so she did not accept the gift of the painting from the Sargent.
Can you imagine?
This and more stories abound in this entertaining exhibition. For a gentle trip back in time, visit the James exhibit at the Morgan Library, through September 10th.

John Singer Sargent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Self-Portrait of John Singer Sargent from 1886.
TD and I ventured up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently to see an exhibition of John Singer Sargent paintings called Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends. I am huge fan of Sargent's and try to take in his work whenever I can. A few years ago TD and I took a trip to Cooperstown where we saw an exhibition of his works at the Fenimore Art Museum on the banks of Otsega Lake, and we made a video about it. Sargent had such a great eye for personalities and clothes and interiors; he made everything look elegant. This show at the Met is a collection of portraits of the artist's friends so they are not as formal and studied as the famous portraits which Sargent did for paying clients. These paintings are more intimate, spontaneous and experimental. Sargent's work is always refined and sophisticated, but these paintings are also relaxed and easy-going, which is a combination that I love.
This famous photo shows Sargent working in his studio. The paintings below in the wonderful show at the Met took Sargent out of the studio, to be with his friends.

There are about 90 works in the Met exhibit. These are a few of my favorites -
This is Claude Monet. I always picture Monet with a big white beard at his home in Giverny. I didn't know he looked like this in his younger days - kind like a bearded Williamsburg hipster.

Below is a charcoal sketch of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats, the greatest English-speaking poet of his generation, lived in County Sligo in Ireland, which is where my great grandfather Dan O'Donnell was from. Yeats wrote a beautiful poem about a lake near Sligo called The Lake Isle of Innisfree. I love this drawing - was there ever a more handsome poet? The description notes that "Yeats cultivated his appearance as a poet and an aesthete, wearing a velvet coat and bow tie as a reminder of his elevated status as an artist."

Here is Claude Monet again, this time painting by the edge of a wood. I like his blue coat and his light grey pants. 

Here is a similar subject matter - this time it is artist Paul Helleu sketching with his wife. The painter concentrates on his work as his wife gazes off. His mouse brown coat contrasts with his light grey pants.

Here is another artist named Ambrogio Raffele, who is pictured in his hotel room as he considers his landscape painting which straddles the washstand and the bed. A hat and bed clothes are strewn over the bed linens as the artist surveys his work. What a charming way to live. 

The painting below, called A Dinner Table at Night, pictures the dining room at the home of Edith Vickers who is shown drinking a glass of port at the end of a meal. The silky ruby red lampshades cast a romantic glow over the scene. 

Lastly is one of my very favorite Sargents called An Interior in Venice from 1898. It shows the grand salon of the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice where Daniel Sargent Curtis (right) and his wife Ariana (center) lived. Standing at the rear are their son and his wife, both elegantly rendered in long lines. All are dressed in black and grey and white, and the vast space of the salon recedes back into the shadows as golden chandeliers and gilt frames hang overhead. Sargent painted this as a gift but Ariana refused the gift, feeling she looked too old and that the lounging pose of her son was indecorous.

In the gift shop I bought a book of the paintings, here pictured at home with little Bell on top of a Double RL Ralph Lauren scarf.

I enjoy looking at the paintings at home now and learning more about them. A trip to a Sargent exhibition to me is a trip back in time to a more cultured and aesthetic era. It's always inspiring and I find it comforting and reassuring. This show is up at the Met until October 4 - go if you can.

Go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

The facade of the Branch Bank of America from 1822-24, originally located on Wall Street, and now found in the newly renovated American wing at the Metropolitan Museum.

Since the Fourth of July fell in the middle of the week, TD and I were in town for the holiday and we decided to take advantage of the day and go up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We did our best to get there on the early side, before it got very crowded, arriving at 11 am.

The first stop was Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, the current exhibition at the Costume Institute. It opened in May and you might have read about it; it pairs together in conversation and clothes Elsa Schiaparelli, the Italian surrealist fashion designer who lived from 1890 - 1973, and Miuccia Prada, the Italian fashion designer who is of course alive and thriving. Cleverly, the curators of the show created video clips directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, Australia) in which Prada and Schiaparelli, played by actress Judy Davis, have compelling conversations.

I loved it.

(No photography allowed; these two photos from The New York Times)

The show was just so smart, and it was so interesting to hear the fashion designers talk about their work and see their clothes presented together. And the clothes are beautiful. Carefully constructed and decorated with embroidery, beads, paillettes, and plastic disks, the designs are intricate, striking, and timeless.

They discuss their different approaches to fashion – Prada designs from the waist down and Schaparelli designed from the waist up, noting that she lived in a cafe society where women sat at restaurant tables so it was important to look fashionable on top, with an emphasis on the shoulders and the bust.

Prada on the other hand notes that "there is so much going on from the waist down, sexy stuff, being attached to the earth." In fact, I have noticed in photos that she often wears a plain sweater and a crazy skirt, like one made of feathers, and outrageous shoes. In this movie, in fact Prada, perhaps the most influential fashion designer in the world, sits at a table wearing a simple white shirt with a grey v-neck sweater, small earrings and no makeup.

This is a photo of Jenna Lyons, the creative director at J. Crew, with designer Eddie Borgo, arriving at the opening party of this exhibition, and you can see that she is channeling the same idea with a plain v-neck sweater and a fantastic, opulent feather skirt. And a great red lipstick.

It's such a cool way to dress – understated on top and glamorous on bottom, a great combination.

Elsewhere in the show, Prada said (and I was trying to write down the quotes correctly), "With my clothes, I try to make men look human. I try to make women look powerful."

"I don't want to make women look pleasing in any way."

"I am trying to create something to wear that makes sense with the mess of life."

Go see this show – it's a very intelligent presentation of clothes and the ideas behind them.

After the dazzle of ornate decoration, we went to see the exhibition of plant drawings by Ellsworth Kelly, which was like a clean, cold, bracing drink of water.

Sunflower, from 1957

Ellsworth Kelly, the contemporary painter who is renowned for his minimalist, color-field paintings, lives in upstate New York, where he produces delicate plant drawings that are lovely in their simplicity. It's a wonderful show to see in the summertime.

The Ellsworth Kelly Plant Drawings catalogue

Then we headed up to the hot, sunny rooftop to see Cloud City, a large constellation sculpture of interconnected modules by Argentinean artist Tomas Saraceno.

Made out of metal and transparent and reflective materials, it looked like a shiny space ship had landed on the roof of the Met. It's possible to climb up into it, but visitors need to go first to the fourth floor to get a timed ticket (free).

After a lunch in the cafeteria, we headed to the recently renovated American Wing (pictured at the top of this post) which I had previously visited with Jane. Here, the museum's American paintings have been beautifully mounted in airy new galleries; I think my favorite room holds the John Singer Sargents. It was a hot summer day, but the whole museum was cooly air-conditioned. The spacious, serene museum is for me like going to church, and there is a lot to see there right now. It's like being in heaven.

Downton Abbey Season 2

Lady Mary Crawley being dressed for dinner by Anna, the head housemaid in Downton Abbey

I loved the first season of Downton Abbey on PBS which tells the story of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants before and during the years of World War I, and wrote about it on the blog. Last night the second season started here in the United States but when I talk to friends about it I am surprised by how many are not familiar with the program. If you are not watching Downton Abbey by all means do tune in. It's a total pleasure and takes you away to a beautiful world.

The drama is shot in part at Highclere Castle, the home of Lord and Lady Carnavon who still live there today. The site has been home to the Carnavon family since 1679, and the castle was built in 1842 by Sir Charles Barry who was responsible for building the Houses of Parliament in London.

The production values including the costumes and interiors are gorgeous. The family members dress in ornate evening clothes for dinner, and downstairs, the servants in uniform are a monochromatic study in black, white, and grey. One of my favorite rooms is Lady Mary Crawley's bedroom, pictured at the top. A deep red pattern decorates the walls and there is always a fire ablaze in the fireplace opposite the bed. Sometimes the female characters are pictured in her bedroom in evening dress having a chat before dinner and invariably Mary says, "I'll be down in a minute." I am often reminded watching this series of John Singer Sargent's paintings, like this – Sargent's The Dinner Table from 1884.

or this oil sketch of Madame X giving a toast.

(watch my video tour of a recent Sargent exhibition in Cooperstown)

But of course the real world interupts the beauty of Downton when World War l breaks out in 1914, which is where we find ourselves in season 2, and honestly one is concerned for the welfare of these characters because you know that some of them will not survive the war. It reminds me of the autiobiography of the Duchess of Devonshire which I enjoyed so much reading last year. She lived through World War ll and noted how practically all of the young men she knew died in its wake – an entire generation.

At Downton Abbey, the war affects those left at home too. With some of the servants enlisted, the household becomes disorganized, and its refined manners and way of operating begin to crumble. The aristocratic art of living starts to crack. But Lord Grantham tries to reassure his servants and relieve them of pressure during wartime. "The world does not turn on the style of a dinner," he says. "Mine does," replies Mr. Carson the butler.

Sargent TV

John Singer Sargent in his Paris studio with his scandalous painting Madame X; photograph by Auguste Giraudon, 1884.

As promised in the previous post, I am uploading here videos tours through the exhibitions John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Praise of Women and Empire Waists, Bustles & Lace: A Century of New York Fashion, now on view at the Fenimore Art Museum in Coopertown, New York, through December 31st. The Sargent show includes 22 works and was curated by Dr. Paul D'Ambroiso in conjunction with Patricia Hill.
John Singer Sargent is one of my favorite painters. Once in London I walked in the rain back to the Tate Gallery to buy a poster of this painting, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose:

I loved how in this painting he combined portraiture, clothing, garden flowers and the magical gloam of dusk. In his portraits, besides perfectly expressing the subject's personality, Sargent, who was a confirmed bachelor, exquisitely captured textures, textiles, interiors and gardens – a beautiful way to live.
Here is the cover of the Fenimore exhibition catalogue:

I grew up in New Hartford, New York, outside of Utica, not far from Cooperstown. While going through the shows with their two curators, we discovered some neat coincidences: Sargent curator Dr. D'Ambroiso lives in New Hartford, and costume curator Chris Rossi showed nineteenth century dresses worn by two sisters from Utica. I hope you enjoy these videos.

I've Been Tagged

My glamorous blog friend in Hollywood, Lisa Borgnes Giramonti, recently nominated mine as one of her favorite blogs and I'm flattered because she has great taste! See for yourself at her blog A Bloomsbury Life. When you are nominated, the rule is to tell ten things about yourself, and nominate your favorite blogs. Since my blog is about beautiful things, I thought I would list some of my favorites:

Flowers, everywhere and always. (West 12th Street)

Flea market finds.

The work of the mad genius designer John Galliano, whose muse is "the impoverished heiress on the run." (Spring 2010 collection, photo from Style.com)

Running/exercise/yoga/the gym. (the sun deck of the Chelsea Piers on the Hudson River)

The power of New York City

and the bucolic peace of upstate New York, where I am from.
(a summer concert in Herkimer)

The work of Belgian designer Dries Van Noten - quirky and completely cool.
(Spring 2010 collection, photo from Men.style.com)

The paintings of John Singer Sargent. Here we have the Sitwell family, including little Edith in red.

Paris, eternally medieval.

The pleasures of a good book

and, one more, making a beautiful thing

where there wasn't a beautiful thing.
That was fun, thanks Lisa!

Now, I nominate (drum roll, please) some beautiful blogs:
The Aesthete's Lament
What I Saw Today
The Errant Aesthete
A Continuous Lean
Fine and Dandy Shop
Pigtown Design
Mr. Peacock
Easy & Elegant Life
Couturealist

Dandies At Large

My friends Matt and Enrique over at Fine and Dandy.com recently put up an online catalogue of their new offerings and I think it's great. Fine and Dandy sells accessories – ties, scarves, cuff links, hats, etc. for guys with style. Matt grew up in a small town upstate and came to New York City to make a life in art and fashion; I can relate! Enrique hails from Canada. Together they opened their online shop about a year ago, and this is their first look book, which was photographed by Patrick Roxas:

Everyone needs a black derby hat!

Newsboy cap, a tartan scarf and a solid grey tie; all easy to add to a wardrobe for a handsome update.

A bow tie and a pocket square with a double-breasted jacket is a great way to dress up jeans.

I said to Matt, I wish everyone dressed like this. Well, The New York Times did a story yesterday on how nineteenth century designs are becoming popular in men's fashion so maybe we'll see more of an elegant style. Congrats to Matt and Enrique for doing their part. Be sure to go to their website to see the complete catalogue and do some holiday shopping.

Thinking about dandies got me going through some images of my favorites.
Here we have the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini circa 1900...in a black derby hat! And a fantastic coat.

This is a painting from the home of French interior decorator Jacques Grange. I like the sitter's combination of white shirt, brown jacket, and light grey trousers.

Here we have Major General John Liddell painted by George Duncan Beechey. His white vest and pants create one long elegant line.

The lines of this uniform flatter the body and lead the eye from head to toe. And I love this room – with its floral wallpaper and soft furnishings.

Here is the painter John Singer Sargent in his studio. You already know that he is one of my very favorite painters. I like his long coat and his long pants – they almost look like boot-cut jeans.

Sargent drew this sketch of Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats grew up in Sligo, Ireland, which is where my great grandfather Dan O'Donnell was from. The poet sports a big floppy bow tie.

Here is Yeats later, in 1932, photographed by Edward Steichen in a silky bow tie and tailored overcoat.

Bringing the dandy into the modern age is Cary Grant, he of the fluid grey suit, the white shirt with a proper cuff showing, and the polished brogue shoe. It kind of looks effortless but you know it isn't.


In putting these pictures together, I see a common thread. There is a sophistication but there also is a relaxed, comfortable feeling of ease. Attention is paid to details, but the result is not highly structured or overwrought. This is a languid, graceful style; there is a sense of natural refinement which comes from within. It's an easy elegance.