Elaine Kilmurray

Splendid as a coffee table book, though as someone who doesn't know much about art I found that most of the commentary went over my head. This is probably not the book's fault, as it's surely intended more for displaying or browsing rather than reading straight through, and for people who aren't novices like me (if you are, I'd recommend having a glossary of terms and artists nearby). I also noticed that while most of the pictures reproduce well, a couple come out either too small or too show more dark for the details to come across. Still the artwork is almost uniformly fantastic, the overview of Sargent's career is very informative, and the book does make me want to see Sargent's oils, watercolors and murals in person. show less

Three essays introduce the catalogue: John Singer Sargent: A Biographical Sketch and Sargent's Ark, both by Richard Ormon, Director of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and the artist's great nephew; and Sargent in Public: On the Boston Murals by art historian Mary Crawford Volk. The Catalogue itself is divided into sections: Early Landscapes and Subject Pictures; Paris and the Salon; Impressionism; Portraiture in England and America; The Murals; Sargent the Watercolourist; Late show more Landscapes, Figure Studies and the war. The book concludes with a Chronology, Selected Bibliography and an Index.

The Catalogue provides a comprehensive commentary on each picture. Many of the entries are illustrated; in total there are 171 colour images and 85 black and white; the black and white images include some photographs and the work of other artists.

The beauty of this book is not just the reproductions, which are beautifully presented and many of which are half page or full page size, but also the accompanying commentaries printed alongside. A very handsome and well produced book.

12" x 9.6" (30.5 cm x 24.5 cm) 285 pages. Published 1998, ISBN 069100434X Hardback show less

Great, great book. I love Sargent.