Charles Stuart Forbes

Maker John Singer Sargent (American, 1856 - 1925)

Collections

American Art Highlights

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1882

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions28 3/4 x 24 1/4 in. (73 x 61.6 cm.) frame: 36 × 28 1/2 × 3 in. (91.4 × 72.4 × 7.6 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation

Status

On view

Label TextThis engaging oil sketch of the American painter Charles Stuart Forbes, whom the artist met in Paris during the early 1880s, demonstrates John Singer Sargent's masterful ability to capture his subjects' likenesses with a bold, economical use of the brush. The off-center placement of the sitter gives the work a casual atmosphere, as though it were done spontaneously, and the personal inscription scratched into the then-wet paint adds to the sense of intmacy. The wall-mounted container above Forbes's right shoulder appears to contain paintbrushes, indicating that the setting may be an artist's studio, decorated with an Oriental-style carpet.

Object number83.8.43