Doris Ferguson 
John Sargent’s Drawings 

This Art Book contains annotated reproductions of John Singer Sargent drawings, date and interesting facts page below. As a portrait painter Sargent had unparalleled success; he was referred to as ‘the Van Dyck of our times.’ By the time Sargent finished his portrait of John D. Rockefeller in 1917; most critics began to consign him to the masters of the past, ‘a brilliant ambassador between his patrons and posterity.’ Modernists treated him more unsympathetically, considering him completely out of touch with the reality of American life and with emerging artistic tendencies like Cubism and Futurism. Sargent silently accepted the criticism, but refused to change his negative opinions of modern art. He replies angrily, ‘Ingres, Raphael and El Greco, these are my admirations, these are what I like.’