John Singer Sargent was made an Honorary Member of The Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1903. The Society is delighted to be able to celebrate its distinguished former member in this, his centenary year.

The Sargent scholar, Richard Ormond, has very generously loaned Sargent’s painting of ‘Conrad and Reine Ormond’ for this annual exhibition. Richard’s catalogue raisonné of Sargent’s drawings will be published in May and Richard has also very kindly agreed to give a talk about the drawings on Saturday 10th May from 4pm – EVENT ENDED!

John Singer Sargent: Portrait Drawings in Charcoal

It is important for the Society to be reminded of its tradition and Sargent certainly represents one strand of that tradition, a quite glorious strand. That contemporary portrait painters can see their work in such company is a wonderful opportunity for comparison; for noting similarities and differences, which will, in both cases, surprise some of us.

‘Conrad and Reine Ormond’ was painted in 1906, the same year that Cezanne made six oil portraits of his gardener, Vallier.

The comparison is interesting because Cezanne’s paintings too belong to the convention of the painted portrait. Quite different painters who were both responding to the presence of another and attempting to give shape and colour to that experience. With this contrast in mind the wealth and variety of the portraits which we can see in our annual exhibition should not surprise; it should remind us that the tradition of depicting each other is alive and bubbling.

John Singer Sargent, ‘Conrad and Reine Ormond’

About the Work