John Singer SARGENT Italy 1856 – England 1925 France and USA
1874-90, England from 1890, with regular visits to France, Italy
and USA oil on canvas canvas 232.0 (h) x 142.0 (w) cm Musée
d'Orsay, Paris , Purchased from the artist 1892 © RMN (Musée
d'Orsay) / Gérard Blot Sargent was born in Europe, of expatriate
American parents. He was profoundly influenced by the Spanish
masters Diego Velazquez, El Greco and Francisco Goya, and by
Edouard Manet’s reworking of them. In the 1870s he studied at
the atelier of Carolus-Duran, and placed second in the entrance
examination for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, on his second attempt.
After early success at the Salon, Sargent lived in Britain and
travelled occasionally to the United States for portrait-
painting binges.1 The Spanish dancer known as La Carmencita
first came to fame at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in
1889, where Sargent probably saw her performing in a tent. She
presented herself as a classically trained ballet dancer named
Carmen Dausset, neither a Gypsy