American Art of the Week

American Art of the Week: Edwin Booth by John Singer Sargent

This week’s artist, like last week’s, is among the most famous artists in American history and one of the first American artists to have a truly international impact. He’s also one of my personal favorites. I am speaking, of course, about John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).

Sargent made many of his best-known works, including the scandalous Portrait of Madame X, during the many years in which he lived in Europe, but he was an American-born artist who painted many American subjects throughout his career. His artfully-composed portraits of notable Gilded Age Americans are most familiar to many art lovers, but I am equally interested in his other work, including watercolors, European landscape scenes, exotic scenes from his travels, and casual images of his friends.

Edwin Booth by John Singer Sargent.
John Singer Sargent, Edwin Booth, 1890. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Forth Worth, Texas. Photo via the-athenaeum.org.

Today’s featured work depicts Edwin Booth (1833-1893) – actor, theatre owner, and older brother of Lincoln’s assassin. (He also looks exactly like my college acting professor, which was commented on freely and frequently in our theatre department. To my knowledge, he never disagreed with the statement.) Edwin Booth was a highly-influential thespian, so he probably viewed it as a compliment. This portrait is owned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, which is a collection I would love to see eventually.


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