John Singer Sargent was born in 1856 in Florence to American parents. He attended European schools and in 1874 studied under French painter Charles Duran and later under Aldolphe Yvon at Ecoles des beaux-arts. His first trip to the United States was in 1876 to attend the Centennial celebrations in Philadelphia.
In 1877 John Singer Sargent submitted his first portrait work to the French Salon in hopes of obtaining commissions, the following year he submitted his first genre painting which set a pattern of exhibiting he would follow for the next several years. After traveling abroad to Spain, Morocco and Holland, Sargent went through a period of painting Venetian subjects and landscapes.
When Sargent presented his portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau in 1884 the Parisian critics were scandalized by her gown and Sargent lost some of the esteem he had reached in their eyes. In 1885 he moved to London to continue his portrait commissions in England. By the 1990's Sargent had established himself as a respected artist in America, Britain and France and the Royal Academy asked him to speak as a visiting instructor at the schools. After 1907 Sargent allowed his portrait painting to dwindle in order to concentrate on decorations for the rotunda at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and murals for the Boston Public Library. John Singer Sargent was offered a knighthood in 1907 by Edward VII but he would never surrender his American citizenship.
