Being one of the best portrait artists of his time, Sargent in fact painted Isabella Stewart Gardner’s
face eight times.
Somehow in a weird way, this makes me feel good; in the sense that we have struggled for the same thing. It’s fascinating to think that the very best struggle even after they have been proclaimed by the public as being the best portrait painter of his time while he was alive.
No matter where we are on this road to expressing oneself or feeling the need to portray someone’s soul by somehow instilling it in their eyes and face, it is one of the most difficult of goals to achieve.
Perhaps Sargent had a hard time with “Bella’s” face was because she was an imposing figure and ambitious and was compared to Cleopatra, living for drama, creating lots of it in her lifetime, taking pleasure in outraging the sensibilities of Puritan Boston, her adopted town. She had blue eyes that resembles blue icicles when angry and a low theatrical voice with a “delicious caress” in it. (p.177)
Personally I’ve looked for some of those traits in the painting, but find none. She seems demure. Maybe it’s hard to paint someone like that? Too many changing moods flitting around the eyes?
But this revision by Sargent was not at the beginning of his career. It’s when he was painting portraits for very important people. He later hid from people who wanted him to paint them. I suspect that he was very tired of mental requirements necessary for these portraits. It exhausted him. And when he gave them up and painted watercolors, life and painting became more fun for him.
Sargent’s Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas by Donna M. Lucey‘
8 times Sargent painted her face and 8 times he scraped it off. p.203
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