Why Sargent Painted Outside The Lines
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- Опубликовано: 26 мар 2023
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SOURCES
www.royalacademy.org.uk/artic...
gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/201...
archive.org/details/velasquez...
books.google.es/books/about/T...
www.studiobinder.com/blog/art...)
www.sightsize.com/carolus-dur...
books.google.es/books?id=yKw5...
books.google.es/books?id=-nFs...
MUSIC (via Epidemic Sound)
Lama House, "Beautifully Dissolved"
Martin Landh, "The Batoidea"
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The Nerdwriter is a series of video essays about art, culture, politics, philosophy and more. 
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I'd like to imagine that Monet and Sargent would just sit and discuss eachothers paintings and lighting techniques and theories. It's amazing that these two painters not only lived in the same time period but were also good friends.
They exchanged fascinating letters which you can read
Any random utterance by Monet would pass far over the head of such a pedantic and maudlin painter as Sargent. The two could never properly communicate.
That’s crazy that people of the same job could even be friends! Could you imagine? 🤯
@@OrdinaryCriticactually yes. In a pre-internet world, in a creative field where each individual is basically his own business, many painters barely knew eachother unless they were active in the same city---let alone look past competition and develop friendships
@@KpxUrz5745 did they tell u that💀
A video on painting by Nerdwriter is top tier content
Can't like it now but you are GODDAMN right.
Its the content I come here for
Explaining beauty with a smooth voice and nice word choices in calming musical background. Nerdwriter’s painting videos feel like a dream.
a rarity on youtube for sure...
Black hole's words are true
Beautiful. Thank you for your wonderful analyses of Sargent and his connection to Velázquez and Duran. We're honored that you featured some works from our collection in your video :)
Please return looted artworks!
Really cool of you to show up for a vid like this. I think the more people recognize that art is this small, the larger it will become.
I agree with all 3 of these comments ^^
@@iliveinarichgirlsdream I agree with all 4 comments
Please don't return looted art work. Just pay the owner a monthly fee for "keeping it".
That way I don't have to travel to Egypt to see art works.
Sargent's watercolors are enough to make an artist cry- the color perception is SO fine, and the application of that visionary perception so f#$king CASUAL, relaxed, spontaneous, he let the pigments run so loosely some of his marks look like *accidental spills*,,,, but they are all PERFECT. ACCIDENTS. Unreal. There's no way to approach anything ressembling his work without a zen-like study of observation. It's downright *imposing* to realize how much he tonal information he could process in a glance, I feel like if he looked at me I'd dissolve into atmospheric color
I've joked with my friends about how easy it is to steal any thoughts from a video essay and call them your own, but I know that our thoughts are not unique to us, they always come from somewhere and are shared with someone.
The reason why video essays are so cool and why I love the nerdwriter is because sometimes you feel a very strong way about a piece of art or media without being able to put it into words and a after simple 8 min video you can orginize your thoughts and understand your feelings better, getting that expirience with one of my favorite painters it's awsome
M
I actually learned, atleast in part, to recognise what moved me in movies by listening to nerdwriter analyse. It made me enjoy movies so much more, helping me understand what I was feeling and making it easier to share with others. Cool stuff.
It's always interesting how paintings look so different, messy and even sloppily done when looking closely yet it all comes together when you look at it from a distance
And applies to most art; paintings are just the most visual and static. This should teach us to pay attention to larger pictures as well as closer details.
I find ballet to be like this. Up close it's brutal and physical but far away it's colours and movement.
It's all shapes! Even with lineart drawing, it's all shape language. When paintings master blending hard and soft shapes, it becomes beautiful!
@@robertszynal4745 I never thought of it that way, but you’re absolutely right. So interesting. …. Thank you.
That's part of what made Expressionism new; the idea that paintings could have an improper viewing distance.
That's what makes Sargent one of the greatest artist to have ever lived. His sense of realism through abstraction is so masterful. Very few artists can get such realistic results with so few brushstrokes. It's like he is the combination of every era of art in one.
I'm a big Sargent fan. I was surprised, while living in Boston (e.g., MFA, Central Library), to find out how much of his career (years) he spent on murals. They were considered to be prestigious jobs, but they are kind of forgotten today - perhaps because they are much more stilted than his typical work.
The murals that he did at the end of his life, which hang in the ceilings of the Boston's Museum of Fine Arts are amazing!! But most people walk right by them because they are up on the high walls and ceiling of the center rotundo. Sargent is an inspiration to me as a musician. This video points out how the overall effect of capturing something without "painting in the lines" is more much more important than a 100% realistic depiction. Emotion over accuracy might be a way to look at it. Thank you Nerdwriter!!!!
For anyone interested, Enya on her 'On My Way Home' music video pays homage to Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by recreating her childhood memories of her sisters. I never knew that sequence was inspired by this painting but the inspiration is unmistakable!
Wow
As a novice artist Sargent's confidence and fearlessness with his brushstrokes is something that I aspire to achieve one day. Also I can't help but think that if he were alive today and decided to make tutorials and digital speedpaint timelapse they would be highly sought after.
He wasn't confident. He probably realized that his brain could resolve shapes into things with little details. Me being nearsighted I understand this easily. They say there were times where he would look at a painting after some time has gone by and fix it. This is because he left the painting for a while and forgot what the shapes meant. Then when he went back some months later and looked at it, he probably was like " my brain can't resolve that shape into something known" and changed it.
The brain has the ability to resolve shapes into things, all you have to do is give it enough information to do so. One does not need details to sell the realism of the painting. (I am nearsighted, I can't even see the details of people's faces without my glasses, but I know who they are through their broad shapes of their faces.} Many people fall into the trap of throwing details in first without realizing that they should have really spent time on building the shapes of the form first.
Have you seen the Draw Mix Paint channel on RUclips? He's a huge Sargent fan and focuses on 3 major things Sargent emphasized. 1) the "abstraction" of his brush strokes and 2) the importance of value, both as discussed in this video. But also 3) the importance of mixing colours exactly. I've heard that Sargent's subjects would complain about how long he took setting up and mixing his pallette, and then did the actual painting rather quickly and somewhat aggressively.
Your painting videos feel like rebellion to the CHAT GPT era of art. These pieces leave an impression (a soul?) that feels distinctly human.
problem with AI art is that, idea in visual arts is very much embedded to the process of creation, whereas in AI, its a context-driven outcome. AI art may produce a lot of contextual work, but art is about the idea, not context. That's why in Rembrandt's portrait works the idea is not the person in it, its the ues of light as he saw it. And what he left out for the viewer to fill in. That's where I believe the soul comes in.
Loved both your comments, guys!
The art education I never got, but always wanted.
Paintings such as Carnation,Lily,Lily,Rose are by far my favorites, capturing light so well and yet with such simple strokes, they feel far more realistic to me than any ultrarealistic painting ever could. Dante and Virgil in the ninth circle of hell by Gustave Doré and New York Movie by Edward Hopper also evoke a similar feeling in me.
realistic paintings you see, impressionists you feel.
i really understand your comparisons
Hearing someone whose job it is to make video essays talk about something they truly love and understand is always a treat, but your ability in this regard is second to none. One of the few channels I've actually "wrung the bell" on.
Please make a book on art analysis! A amateurs guide, or maybe even just a collection of your favorite pieces. I love these videos so much and would very much appreciate a book version!
I moved to Boston recently, and as a result, I've had the unbelievable privilege of seeing some of Sargent's work in person. It's almost indescribable, but you've done a pretty fine job.
I was able to go to DC back in middle school and they had a Sargent exhibit that rocked my world. Carnation Lily Lily Rose has been my favorite still these decades later, and I can't tell you how excited it was to hear someone else not only say the same, but passionately explain why. The COLOR on those lanterns is both otherworldly and nostalgic at the same time. Thank you for this.
I got the same reaction when I saw starry night in person. How thick and loosely the paint applied to the canvas changed how I painted forever.
Wow, he's probably my favourite painter now too.
I'm not a big art guy,
but I thought the style I like most was best found in Rembrandt,
but I can see now it's actually manifest more so in Sargent, even if I'm not crazy about portraits.
Well, I am a big art guy. And I think you are on the right track with Rembrandt, and many other truly great artists. After a long lifetime of dedicated study of the Masters, and also working to have my own works also now sought by museums, I must say for the hundredth time that I find Sargent to be quite a minor talent. Given the odds, I would rather NOT go see a painting by Sargent.
It's always nice to start the week with such a positive and wholesome video. Thank you.
Sargent is definitely my favorite painter of all time. His brush-work bravura is unlike anything else and his confidence in values and colors is something I strive to emulate one day with as much mastery and skill as he has. Amazing video, I've been waiting for a while on a Nerdwriter essay on Sargent.
Um. All I can say, after a long lifetime of study of the very top artists, is that I humbly suggest you rethink your premise. I find Sargent to be mediocre at best, and truly hopelessly maudlin at worst. I would go with an immeasurably greater artist, Velasquez, by any possible measure or criteria. The museums are now collecting my own works, and I beg you on this. Sargent is quite unaccountably overrated by a great many viewers. His paintings actually make me cringe with their overt sentimentality. I cannot abide them.
@@KpxUrz5745 Luckily this is just your "not humble" opinion.
@@leskvin80 We learn that one thing that cannot be accounted for, or corrected, is poor taste.
@@KpxUrz5745 Or we learn that sometimes our personal opinion cannot be imposed on others and that fortunately the individual's personal taste is what really matters. I respect your opinion and indeed, the fact that you can hate it or consider it overrated makes me like it even more.
@@leskvin80 And if you reread above, you will see that I never tried to "impose" my opinion upon others, only hoped to educate them. In fact, I was exceedingly polite about it, by saying "I humbly suggest that you rethink your premise" (to the original poster). I am unable to improve anyone's taste in art except my own.
Saw his work Gassed on display once, which is absolutely massive. In it, you see these planes flying in the background. Up close, those planes are literally two brush strokes each. It blew my mind
5:26
That hand of hers actually made me cry. What mastery! The hand is moving! It's frames merched together! It's vivid! Beautiful!
Literally rewinded and rewatched multiple parts of this video. Not just because of the beauty of the paintings but the beauty of the explanations and the way it was edited. My favourite RUclips channel!
Absolutely correct- he was the very best portrait painter ever. And anyone who has ever painted will tell you that human faces are the most challenging subject matter there is to paint. I went to art school in the early 1980s and I don't recall him ever being mentioned. He didn't fit easily in to the History of Art that we were taught. He didn't belong to any "movements"- didn't attack any artists who came before him He never starved or strugled. But boy did he paint! Americans considered him European while Europeans considered him American. He was very popular and successful which some resented. To truly understand his work it must be seen in person- close up. I had the good fortune to see a huge Sargent show at the Whitney Museum in NYC back in the late 1980s and I was stunned. I went to the same show twice a week apart it was so impressive.
I was hoping you'd name drop Sorolla somewhere in here! I feel like Sorolla represented what would've happened if Sargent had been born in Spain, they were both very similar in their approach.
I mean not only that but they knew each other. The trifecta of Sorolla, Sargent and Zorn
@@transientimages true!!!! I like to imagine and wonder what their conversations must've been like
I personally like Sorolla more and I feel like he’s always overlooked because of Sargent. In my opinion Sorolla was even more incredible when it came to capturing light.
@@SebastianTinajero absolutely
I love your essays on painters the most. I always come away edified and inspired and in awe of the capability of humanity to continually surprise me.
One thing I noticed too was that Sargent divides the composition into ‘half’ light and ‘half’ dark (usually divided diagonally) and then he accents the light areas with a dark spot and the dark areas with a light spot. Basically the yin Yang symbol. - if you squint your eyes you can usually see this pattern. If the divide between the big darks and the big lights is a soft one, then the accents tend to be hard and more flat. If the divide between the big lights and darks is a harder line then the accents (the eyes in the yin Yang symbol) tend to be soft (have a gradient soft edge)
The way how music, narration and visuals are synced is itself masterpiece. Very carefully crafted piece of content, thanks a lot 🙌🏻
Values do all the work and colour takes all the credit. It's unusual for a non painter to have this discussion. Thanks for taking it on and sharing it with the world.
The size of these paintings is incredible in person.
“An Artist In His Studio” is housed at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and this painting literally stopped me in my tracks when I was there a couple years ago. He is painted so clearly but his surroundings are almost blurry it was like a camera effect. I love this one. Can’t wait to get back to Boston ❤
Two years on that painting. Man, that's dedication.......
I immediately thought of Velazquez when you mention the heavy metal strokes of Sargent. Just like Van Gogh, I think Velazquez needs to be seen in person to be really appreciated and see his genius hand where the silver details of a noblewoman's dress are almost 3D because he uses broad thick strokes. He really was ahead of his time, his Villa Medici is literally an impressionist painting, 200 years before impressionism (and one of the best impressionist paintings IMHO). I didn't know Sargent, but he's just something out of this world. Almost looks impossible to be able to show form and light so perfectly with such a brutal stroke. Btw, Sargent's portrait of Carolus Duran screams Velazquez to me. The earthy colors of the background, the texture of the clothes, the naturalistic faces... Complete genius.
Fantastic essay. I've been complimented in lots of art classes for my "looseness" -- which took me a long time to understand, because to me it just feels like I'm skipping the work of "finishing"... but then I understood!! It's about the perception of confidence... which is funny because I don't feel very emotionally confident. I just paint what I see, but not everything has equal importance, so not everything needs equal detail
Your choice of words at the end ... very well done. You made me immediately imagine how this approach to painting, mirrors the reality of experience. Delicate piece by piece, with no regard to the bigger picture. Just a focus on the every day. But the larger picture shows a form in a way you can't see it in the details.
The lily lily Canva was the first one Sargent that I see. I became wondered about how realistic it is and at the same time so expressionist in his details. I love Singer Sargent’s works and how do you talk about them. He’s works always make me remember of Peder Kroyer and his students works.
your content always leaves me speechless, such short videos, but so much love put into each one. I just adore your painting videos, thank you nerdwriter, truly thank you
My love for art, and the reason I want to become an artist, was because I saw a Sargent painting. For 20 years I've been driven to create the way Sargent paints. He is the best.
I love your video essays on artworks. It's probably your best works, and definitely what made me find your channel way back in the day when I saw your video on The Death of Socrates. It moved me to tears
this video was beautifully crafted and moving. Sargent is definitely my favorite artist and he understood the world in a different light, which really resonates in his paintings. his charcoal pieces also show how he understood tone and used contrast to craft a beautiful and meticulous depiction of realism without focusing too much on details. when you zoom into his works, there's this level of confidence and swiftness without much detail, yet when you zoom out of his works, all his brush strokes are beautifully blended together. you can truly feel Sargent's level of confidence and understanding of light.
I’ve never heard of John Singer Sargent until this video. His work is profound.
I love the weight and substance that sergeant gives to his paintings.
Beautifully presented! Sargent’s work is stunning in person. I’ve seen several of the paintings in this video at museums and they absolutely awed me! That observation about the ring being indicated with a single pale yellow dab of paint…EXACTLY! That was Sargent’s genius. He could indicate the most important details with an absolutely poetic economy of brushstrokes. Less delineation and the subject would fall apart into abstraction, more would somehow freeze out some of the life in it. There are always “lost and found” edges or passages of light and shadow that disappear and reappear and the viewer’s participation is always required to bring the image together. When I was learning to paint, I had a huge breakthrough when I read about Sargent’s painting process. He had worn a groove in the floor of his studio because he would stand back from the canvas, examine the model carefully and then “attack the canvas” with one or two decisive strokes, then back up and evaluate their effectiveness. If he was dissatisfied, he’d scrape them off with a palette knife and try again. The confidence and loose, but accurate strokes weren’t because he never made mistakes. They were a result of his obsessive pursuit of only describing the subject with the least amount of strokes needed.
My favorite painting of his is Fumee d'Ambre Gris. My art teacher used to call it 'a study in white' because it so perfectly demonstrated the range of just one color
one of the most important things I learned from my art classes was that if you can paint values, you can paint shapes!
His society painting, his nude drawings of male models and the wonderful watercolours he painted on holidays are breathtaking. But, for me, the paintings he painted as a war artist reach my heart. His painting “Gassed”, in particular, speaks volumes
Thank you for helping me see art in a more profound way!
Just got back from a trip to Madrid where I got to see Goya's dark paintings in person at the Prado Museum. They reminded me of your video about the most frightening painting and I cherished the connection. I could understand more deeply what I was looking at thanks to you.
he's one of my favorite painters too!! I'm an oil painter, and I wanted to thank you for inspiring me to start this path way back with the Louis David painting videos, you changed many more lives than you think, thank you man
This was a real treat. Some amazing insights into one of my favourite artists of all time.
When I was a young painter, he was what inspired my journey. I was so frustrated buy how difficult it was to do the thing, because it looks so natural. At this point in my art journey, I had never received any instruction on concepts of value, so instead I worked sculptural, pilling paint into peaks and draws to make the light of the world around it create the value. It never worked, obvi, but this was the work that inspired me to set out. I went into abstraction rather than representation, but this style of construction still guides my process. Now that I understand it better (thank you), I can feel a space opening up inside of me for new pathways to follow.
I love Sargent's painting of a hermit! The whole composition is so organic, not only in terms of the loose brushstrokes coming alive as a whole but also in terms of the usage of colours, how the man and the soil and the deers fuse into each other to give us a vision of a sombre wild wisdom
Thank you for reminding me of that painting.
this channel is a blessing for everyone. congrats on the book, i'll definitely be looking for it!
This was one of the best videos you've made on painting. Thank you.
I learned more about Sargent from this 7:58 minutes than I have from 65 years of admiring and studying his technique in the USA and Europe. In Madrid I pressed so close to his painting, admiring the technique, that the guard had to warn me. THANK YOU.
Your videos about painters and their work are my favorites!
I was never able to articulate the way that impressionism has impressed me. This video does an amazing job of distilling the ethos of how I paint when I have the opportunity.
As someone who always wanted to be a portrait artist, I absolutely adore Sargent. The fact that he ever fell out of favor just baffles me.
This is a ridiculously great description of Sargent's approach and painting in general. I'm astounded that someone who seems not to be a professional artist can characterize it all so aptly. Bravo.
Thanks for the perspective, I previously had overlooked John Singer Sargent.
Beautiful video! Amazing work as always. For me, this is one of your best works, next to the Edward Hopper one. Loved Escape Into Meaning btw! 😊
I went to the metropolitan museum of art and often found myself observing brush strokes on his paintings up close to learn textures as I am an artist myself, and I had to remind myself to take a few steps back because each painting pulled me in, but in order to appreciate the paintings I had to step back to see the whole image
this is the kind of explanation i would need while going through a museum
"i can see all this art hanging on the walls"
"and here is why what the artist did is impressive"
never seen nor heard of sargent before but that "carnation lily lily rose" painting easily has the best capture of light i have seen caught in a painting or art piece. it is EPIC
That was amazing. Sargent has been my ‘second’ favorite painter-after Picasso-since I discovered and fell in love with The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit in a college textbook in 1985. But I have only been familiar with that and his towering society portraits. I didn’t know he was so much more versatile. Spectacular. Thank you.
Sargent’s El Jaleo has an otherworldly feeling when seen in person. His mastery of light in that piece is unparalleled.
I've been waiting YEARS for a NerdWriter video on Sargent!! What a way to start the week ❤
Thank you! This video articulates for me the matter of intend, limitation of technique and actually embracing the medium to convey reality through simplicity
A truly exceptional discussion of Sargent’s work. Thank you
What I love about Your art videos is that you choose the subject of them on the first with your heart and than you explore this intuitive choice... Thank you for every video you made.. art survive this times also thanx people like you ❤respect!
Sargent is one of my all time favorites. This was a superb video. Thank you!
This is one of your best. I really felt what you were talking about today.
5:42 how I audible gasped at that gorgeous piece. Most beautiful painting I have ever scene till date
So surprised you are a Sargent fan too, great videos and thank you for having the good taste of indicating the titles of the paintings. Great work !
Simply spetacular, Evan! Sargent really was a talented and gifted person: that's why his masterpieces leave us to a state of bliss and ecstasy. And, since you made a video about Sargent, I would like to make a request: a video about Joaquim Sorolla. I had the chance and the privilege to learn a lot about him, when I was in Madrid last year. Congratulations about this video, and keep uo the good work: your videos are a delight to all of us.👏👏👏👏👏
Great, thanks for introducing me to those painting, quite beautiful.
Nerdwriter covering my favorite painter, a dream come true. Super cool to learn that the way I learned to paint is Duran’s method, too.
Its called "harmony" in value, color, soft and hard edges and composition. Like in music, harmony brings a peaceful life to your work. Great video.
Thank you for this, it was beautiful.
Sargent, Leyendecker, Frazetta and Jeffrey Catherine Jones are my favourite painters.
Please do more painting videos. These are the best kind
He also painted directly from life which is HUGE for value painting because cameras tend to exaggerate value in a photograph. Great video
These are so good. Don't ever stop please.
Beautifully done, and spot on as to Sargent:s genius. Exceptionall! Thank you.
Beautiful and inspiring analysis. Thank you very much for sharing!
Your voice itself compliments the tone of the colors. Beautiful
Such beautiful artwork. Perfection!
Man I absolutely love this approach to communicating ideas, can’t wait to read Escape into Meaning
If you ever see his portrait of Auguste Rodin you can tell by the way it's painted that the subject is a sculptor. It appears as if made with colored clay rather than oils. Amazing.
Thx. Every time I’ve seen a Sargent painting in real life it has been a true standout. This vid really captures the awe I feel each time
THANK YOU for your insightful and captivating videos. Watching your videos is like opening new doors and seeing the world in a new and beautiful way. You always make me feel more inspired and curios. Thank you so much and keep up the good work
Recently had a chance to see "Lady Agnew of Lochnaw" (pictured at 5:03) while visiting Scotland. It is absolutely remarkable how vivid and life-like she looks, despite the brushstrokes being so visible.
As an artist getting into painting again this was very inspiring ♡
Alvin Singer Sargent is one of my favorite painters as well.
Great video!
I suspect publishing your book must have been tough and I'm glad you were able to accomplish such a feat. That being said, I'm always delighted to see my bell light up when one of your essays comes out on RUclips.
I love the emotion you o put into the narration.
you covered my favorite painter!! Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is my absolute favorite painting
Yes... Just lines... Insolent lines.. Slashed onto the canvas... But in the hands of a true master like Sargent... One step back gives a masterpiece.
Rx
what a beautiful video! Sargent's paintings are so ethereal to observe
That was pretty amazing. Great work!
Thank you!
Please keep the good work and expanding out knowledge