Day 29 Addendum 2: Sargent revisited

  

At the same time that the Met put on its blockbuster exhibition of Sargent paintings, Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston ran Yours Sincerely, John S Sargent, highlighting items from the museum’s newly acquired Sargent Archive -- and renewing the claim of holding the most comprehensive Sargent collection in any museum.

A panel at the Met’s exhibit stated, “The Met’s collection of works by Sargent is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world” (emphasis added), and itemized the number of paintings, works on paper, and sketchbooks.

The introductory panel to the MFA exhibit went beyond that and asserted, “The MFA holds the most comprehensive collection of Sargent’s art – paintings, murals, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures” (emphasis added) – but didn't list the exact number from each category.

 

Sargent had many ties to Boston, but the MFA's "smoking gun" was a customs document in which Sargent gives Boston as his permanent residence.

The Sargent presence is felt by visitors immediately when they enter the MFA as they encounter the large murals that Sargent created for the Colonnade and Rotunda.

While the Met’s exhibit contained an amazing collection of large oil paintings, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit remained safely in Boston, where it is the MFA's most beloved painting and the centerpiece of the new Art of the Americas Wing.

 

 

 

 

 

According to a Sargent letter in the Archives exhibit, this is the one painting that the MFA would not lend out, even back in 1923 for a major Sargent retrospective in New York. "Mr. Fairbanks the Director told me that the one thing the Trustees would not lend was the Boit children," Sargent wrote (right side of letter starting on 4th line).

The Boit Daughters is so well known in Boston that the MFA will often focus on just one of the daughters, assuming people will still recognize the painting.