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 enlarge | Author: John Singer Sargent
Publisher: Dover Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $6.95
Buy New: $3.00
You Save: $3.95 (57%)
New (27) Used (19) from $1.99
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 41498
Media: Paperback
Pages: 48
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 8 x 0.2
ISBN: 0486245241
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.973
EAN: 9780486245249
ASIN: 0486245241
Publication Date: August 1, 1983
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Over 600,000 Feedbacks Posted!!! BRAND-NEW IN-HOUSE READY TO SHIP!!! NOT A REMAINDER!!! WE ARE A FIVE-STAR SELLER!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
A remarkable bargain! October 19, 2007
Peter McReynolds (California U S)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A remarkable bargain and a must for anyone interested in John Singer Sargent or his work. An 8 by 11 inch, less than 50 page paperback. Published by Dover. BW reproductions of 42 portrait sketches by Sargent. Mostly done in charcoal. Two long pages of lucid and informed, really excellent text by Trevor Fairbrother, author of books devoted to Sargent and several articles as well. The reproductions are competent, but, as always, can be nothing like the originals, one of which I've many times had the privilege of admiring in person. Although here again, any one familiar with works on paper has seen how even the interposition of the protective glass, sadly, visibly degrades the viewing. br / br /The 42 sketches span a remarkable, interesting and even entertaining range. Arranged in almost chronological order, they stem from early in his career, but not his childhood, to near the end of his productive life, when he had almost entirely quit portraiture. Fairbrother skillfully has chosen an eclectic lot of Sargent subjects, well illustrating yet another facet of Sargent's personality. Although said shy unto retiring, Sargent must have liked people, at least the varied types of people. He certainly depicted all kinds. Here from a boy little more than an infant to the elderly and "important". The serious and the frivolous. Talented, self-made artists and performers to the witless-looking heirs and dismal aristocrats. br / br /The book's incredible spectrum of people / types and Sargent's genius at capturing both their surface and their interior, can form the center of quite a game easily played today via the Internet. For example, the portrait of a friend of Sargent's, one Earnest Thesiger. From this sketch one infers quite a character, seeming a person perhaps of manic ebullience. The very amusing facts in his bio on the web's Wikipedia rather bears this out. One learns further that Thesiger was the nephew of General Frederic Augustus Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, famously incompetent in needlessly losing his entire army in a massacre by the Zulus. (One can imagine a portrait of a dim and blimpy character here. Thankfully, nowadays the British select more professionals for their general officers.) Sargent's jolly Earnest Thesiger further was cousin to the famous Wifred Thesiger, author of the autobiography, "The Last Nomad". Wifred Thesiger was a war hero, diplomat, author, explorer and skilled photographer. Among his other accomplishments, the autobiography describes Wilfred's tireless toiling in the Sharm el Shatt (where the south of Iraq borders the south of Iran) to bring modern male circumcision to the primitive marsh Arabs. (A people so independent in their watery wilderness that the late Saddam Hussein ordered the draining of their protective confusion of still waters and bogs.) Well, odd as it might seem, Wilfred's medical procedures were clearly an improvement over the native's, I imagine especially over a ceremony for teenagers involving a low-banked fire built in a shallow sand pit. But, I digress. br / br /However, that is the point, digressing from Sargent's wonderful portraits. What do they tell us; how can we follow up on our impressions? I'm returning to Fairbrother's book to select another sketch subject to mine for edification. I'm confident because Sargent has been described as having a large circle of interesting and talented friends. Except for those portraits of blimps. br / br /Again, an excellent book at a very reasonable price. br /
 Good study material October 10, 2007
J. A. M. Zeeuwe (Netherlands)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Nice series of books, these Old Master Portrait Drawings from Dover Art Library. Good material if you want to study portrait drawing. Good reproductions of the drawings. No text, only a short introduction from the publisher and titles with the drawings. The drawings say it all.
Sargent Captures the Personality and for any Life Drawing Student this will be a Wonderful Guide June 25, 2007
C. Miller (Aiken, SC United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a student of Life Drawing and Portraiture (Carolyn's by Design) going back to her art, I had to have more of Sargent. I had just read the book, "Strapless" about the nortorious Madame X who was captured over and over again in Sargent's renderings. This compilation of renderings displays how attuned Sargent is with his representations of the personalities, how good his eye is at capturing the likeness.....how easily he appears to use minimal usage of his medium to obtain maximum expression in his subject.....This small Dover Art Library reference to Sargent gives you the medium and size as well as the name of the subject and the Intro gives you a great synopsis on Sargent's bio.....For any serious student of Sargent....you will refer back to this over and over again for technical knowledge as well as the inspirational beauty obtained from his work...I love him! Formerly millersequine....sign me Carolyn's by Design and "Enjoy"!!!
Wonderful March 17, 2007
Sharon L. Majestic
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
As an art student, I'm in love with Sargents drawings, so much to learn from such a master.
 Drawings or Sketches? August 4, 2006
Julie Groth (Louisiana)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was a little disappointed in this book. I expected detailed, color drawings. This book contains nice sketches of portraits that Sargent perhaps later painted. The reproductions are a little blurry, also. It is still a nice, inexpensive reference book to own.
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