SARGENT
IT is of more than passing significance that some of the works of the late John Sargent should have been placed in the National Gallery before his death. This honour had been given to few other living artists ; yet the inclusion of these works amongst the great pictures of the past called forth very little controversial dis- pleasure; and although it was re-establishing a precedent that had been almost forgotten, the public felt quite sure that the future would accept this act of appreciation, and that the works of Sargent merited a place in the History of Art.
Undoubtedly his work will prove of inestimable value when posterity comes to cast its searching glance upon this age, for Sargent represents the very zenith of a par- ticular phase of painting—a phase that can be closely paralleled with the Darwinian theory of evolution—a phase in which important stress is laid on the capture and prolongation of the present. The arresting of evanescent effects, the catching of the fleeting aspect, the transfixing of the illusory moment—these formed part of Sargent's artistic creed. " I do not judge : I chronicle," he is reported to have said. How well he lived up to his creed! lie was the chronicler par excellence. With perfect economy of statement and treatment, with sureness in every brushful of pigment, he conveys to the spectator who beholds his painting the results of that rapidity and certainty of vision which were his to the highest degree. Combined with this ability to harness the ephemeral effect to his brush is a spontaneity of technique which contributes a certain congruity to every subject he paints. This spontaneity is not merely an imposed piece of vir- tuosity bnt.the natural corollary to his particular outlook. Because of this seeming rapidity of execution, whose effect at times is dazzling, it is only natural that the underlying construction should seem occasionally to be lacking. On examination, however, we find that urgent is a thorough master of pattern—a pattern which consists of arrange- ments of light and shade, equitably balanced and inevit- ably related. The mere fact that his composition of masses is never obtrusive only makes his mastery over them all the greater. His work. has that kind of con- struction which we observe in natural growth : it is not artificially manufactured nor applied, but springs from the nature of his subject.
The real significance of Sargent, however, lies in the fact that he is the culminating point of a tradition which is now on the wane ; for our younger painters arc inspired by ideals far removed from those which served him. The older attachment to the later Renaissance and Impres- sionism has been supplanted by the newer attraction towards the Art of Egypt and the Primitives. The sheer excellence of Sargent as an exponent of the particular tradition which he represented has helped, in part, to herald in the newer artistic creeds. The newer creeds are perhaps no better than the older ones ; they are only different. That the younger men find them more satis- fying and adequate is sufficient reason for their existence. It is therefore appropriate that, even before his death, a place should have been found for the works of Sargent in the National Gallery. His name will live as one of the ablest and most notable pillars of the pre-War tradition of painting. In these days of publicity and. the chaotic interpenetration of the false with the true, the fact that Sargent was able to maintain the position he held as a fashionable portrait painter in the face of the competitive trumpeting of others in the Press, and through every fickle change of fashion, not only speaks well for his worth as a painter but also pays tribute to his rare. personality.
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