Artist Lineage

Diego Velazquez inspired Édouard Manet (artist to bridge realism and impressionism), inspiring Carolus-Duran and Sargent to travel to Spain and copy his work. He copied many Franz Hals paintings for his technique in oils.

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sarg/hd_sarg.htm

The composition of ‘The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit’ draws comparison to Las Meninas by Velazquez.

Madame X has brushwork and palette of Velazquez, “unmodulated treatment of face and figure inspired by the style of Titian, Edouard Manet and Japanese prints”

Carnations was a result of the influence of impressionism, hanging out with Monet. This was an exploration of light “capturing the light of dusk” (lowkey my favourite painting). “He had become acquainted with and learned from both Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, masters of the movement. Sargent, like Monet, was particularly fascinated with light” https://web.archive.org/web/20180925180729/https://www.biography.com/people/john-singer-sargent-9471905

I feel like that’s kind of what impressionism was about, the vivid colours of natural light at different times of the day. Before you had cameras, you really had to work quickly to get the colours down. And still you have to question the accuracy of cameras compared to the human eye, en plein air painting is an important practice to this day for studying colour and light.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose was a painting he did shortly after his move to London fleeing from the scandal of Madame X. I imagine the painting was a response to the criticism and a change from his usual style of portraits. He was perhaps over-confident when it came to portraits and the criticism shook him. Elements of impressionism, painted en plein air to capture the purple tint of evening.