London

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1318" height="2560" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-scaled.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-201" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-scaled.jpeg 1318w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-154x300.jpeg 154w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-527x1024.jpeg 527w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-768x1492.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-791x1536.jpeg 791w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/MadameX_760x1484-1054x2048.jpeg 1054w" sizes="(max-width: 1318px) 100vw, 1318px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Madame X </figcaption></figure>



Is the new Sargent and Fashion exhibition, launched on 22 Feb at Tate Britain, simplistic and reductive, or a rich, visual feast that shows Sargent&#8217;s society portraits in a new light? The broadsheets can&#8217;t decide (The Guardian virtually hissed out its review; The Times was kinder), but on Muddy we make up our own mind, and I loved it.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-male-portrait.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-208" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-male-portrait.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-male-portrait-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-male-portrait-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-male-portrait-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), born to American parents in Europe, was cultured, cosmopolitan and at ease in polite society. Having trained as an artist in Paris, he was known as a portrait artist whose brush would flatter and flounce its subjects, famously resulting in DH Lawrence dismissing his work as “nothing but yards and yards of satin from the most expensive shops, having some pretty head propped up on the top&#8221;. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1125" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-full-view-straight-gaze.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-203" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-full-view-straight-gaze.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-full-view-straight-gaze-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-full-view-straight-gaze-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-full-view-straight-gaze-768x576.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



This exhibition attempts to turn Lawrence&#8217;s verdict on its head but showing that Sargent not only wielded his painter&#8217;s brush with skill but was (in 21st century terms) also a clever stylist, carefully manipulating, enhancing and even at times re-pinning dresses to better reflect his vision. So there&#8217;s an undoubted modern relevance to this exhibition, and perhaps a little superficiality too &#8211; the coming together of wealth, self-promotion and fleeting fame (most of the sitters with the exception of President Wilson being no longer famous) that we can all relate to through our frothy reality TV and social media consumption. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-red-dress.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-204" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-red-dress.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-red-dress-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-red-dress-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-red-dress-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



Each of the nine rooms themes his work &#8211; from Sitting for Sargent and Cutting a Figure (the men get a look in here), to Performance which showcases both Sargent&#8217;s large group of artistic bohemian friends and the original outfits alongside his famous portraits of actress Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889) and La Carmencita, famous Spanish dancer (1889).



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="768" height="1024" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-dancer-in-gold-768x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-205" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-dancer-in-gold-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-dancer-in-gold-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-dancer-in-gold-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-dancer-in-gold.jpeg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">La Carmencita</figcaption></figure>



The most famous of Sargent&#8217;s paintings, Madame X, a portrait of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau with ghost-white skin against a shoulder-baring dress that scandalised <a href="https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/paris-art-salon-exhibition">the 1884 Salon exhibition</a>, is startlingly beautiful, though it seemed a shame to spoil the effect with a huge quote directly above the portrait. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-black-dress-detail.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-206" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-black-dress-detail.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-black-dress-detail-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-black-dress-detail-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-black-dress-detail-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Detail from Madame X</figcaption></figure>



Each room teams with tulle, silk, taffeta and pearls and if you&#8217;re like me you&#8217;ll probably start feeing a slight fatigue with the more traditional works (Van Gogh and Gaugin were contemporaries but you&#8217;d never guess it) but there are some phenomenal portraits here &#8211; Miss Elsie Palmer, or A Lady In White (1889-90), just 17 year old at the time, stares directly back at Sargent with a confidence that stops you still.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2362" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice-.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-211" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice-.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice--191x300.jpg 191w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice--650x1024.jpg 650w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice--768x1209.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice--975x1536.jpg 975w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-and-Fashion-Tate-Britain-Alice--1301x2048.jpg 1301w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A Lady In White</figcaption></figure>



 Meanwhile, portraits of friends such as Parisian gynaecologist Dr. Pozzi at Home (1881) dressed, not in day wear but &#8216;at home&#8217; in a startling crimson dressing gown and Turkish slippers offers a snapshot of Sargent&#8217;s sly penchant, when he can get away with it, for personality over starchy propriety.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-close-up-of-dress-in-sunshine.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-207" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-close-up-of-dress-in-sunshine.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-close-up-of-dress-in-sunshine-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-close-up-of-dress-in-sunshine-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/london/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2024/02/Sargent-Fashion-Tate-Britain-close-up-of-dress-in-sunshine-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



What would have raised this exhibition further would have been some context into Sargent&#8217;s world beyond the simple roll call of lords, ladies and moneyed Americans, but as a snapshot of Victorian and Edwardian society and the creative types knocking around its fringes, it&#8217;s still worth your while. 



&#8216;Sargent and Fashion&#8217; is at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/sargent-and-fashion">Tate Britain, London</a>, from 22 Feb to 7 July. Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Nearest tube: Pimlico.

First look: Sargent and Fashion, Tate Britain

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