Fashioned by Sargent

Lately I sometimes wonder, when it can feel like the world is burning, whether John Singer Sargent's (1856Sargent's ( -1925) ) artwork is still relevant for my students, most of whose lives seem very far removed from the world of luxury, privilege, and grace he so seductively conjured.Fashioned by Sargent, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, offered a resounding yes.The show revealed Sargent's creative use of fashion to construct some of his most compelling portraits and offered the rare opportunity to see pictures from the MFA and Tate Britain, two of the most important custodians of the artist's work, as well as other collections, together with dazzling period clothing and accessories, in some of which sitters posed.Created by scholars of painting and fashion arts, the exhibition could be enjoyed simply for the sheer visual spectacle of Sargent's virtuoso technique and the fine workmanship of sumptuous gowns and accessories, on and off canvas, as well as the opportunity to see works like Madame X, Dr. Pozzi at Home, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, and Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, to name just a few, in one place (figs.1, 2, 3, 4).[1]But the exhibition and its catalogue are also part of ongoing scholarly explorations of the complex power dynamics within the practice of portraiture.And while, in recent years, scholars have fruitfully explored the ways in which sitters have maintained their agency in relation to artists, Fashioned by Sargent focused on the power of the portraitist and to a lesser extent those who publicly responded to his works.