Posts Tagged ‘Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’

John Singer Sargent

Tuesday, June 29th, 1999

He was the pre­em­i­nent por­trait painter of his day, and he gave it all up to paint land­scapes. His pri­vate life is a mys­tery. His brush­work is still daz­zling. JOHN SINGER SARGENT seems to have walked out of the pages of a nov­el by Hen­ry James, who wrote of him: “Yes, I have always thought of Sar­gent as a great painter. He would be greater still if he had done one or two lit­tle things he hasn’t—but he will do.”

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John Singer Sargent’s EL JALEO

Wednesday, August 28th, 1991

In a dark, smoky room, a soli­tary dancer rais­es up her arm in a tense, ecsta­t­ic move­ment of inspi­ra­tion; her oth­er hand clutch­es the skirt of her dress — a flash of white light gleam­ing in the dark. You can almost hear the rhyth­mic weep­ing of the gui­tars; you can almost feel beat­ing of the dancer’s tumul­tuous heart.

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The Future of Art

Friday, March 1st, 1991

It is art that acknowl­edges the strug­gle of its own mak­ing, and con­veys a sense of life as com­posed of frag­ments, where not every­thing is leg­i­ble, and some things are irrev­o­ca­bly ruined or lost. The past haunts and enrich­es the present. Mem­o­ry and imag­i­na­tion are inter­twined. It is a mir­ror of the soul.

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Farewell Concert

Thursday, March 29th, 1990

I loved THE CONCERT, the beau­ti­ful lit­tle paint­ing by VERMEER. Each time I looked at it, I saw some­thing new. Now it’s gone. I try to remem­ber every line, every shad­ow, every gleam of light, every sweet cadence of its silent music, but I can already feel it fad­ing. As time goes by, it will dark­en and grow dim. 

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