Sargent and Paris

A fascinating look at John Singer Sargent’s formative years as a young painter in Paris, a city that helped forge his artistic identity and sparked his rise to the pinnacle of the nineteenth-century art world

In 1874, eighteen-year-old American artist John Singer Sargent went to Paris to become a painter. A mere ten years later, he would be an art-world sensation, sparking controversy with his scandalous portrait Madame X at the 1884 Salon. Sargent and Paris focuses on this decisive early decade in the artist’s storied career, when he first achieved recognition for ambitious portraits and bold canvases that pushed the boundaries of convention. Incisive essays by the world’s foremost Sargent scholars explore his life in Paris—then the epicenter of the cultural world—and the cosmopolitan circle of artists, writers, and cultivated patrons that nurtured his career and helped forge his artistic identity. Authors highlight the painter’s connections to giants of the Parisian art scene as well as the influential patrons who were key to Sargent’s progression as an artist. Presented alongside lavish images of more than a hundred paintings and works on paper—brought together from public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe—this publication offers an intimate look at the roots of Sargent’s signature, breathtaking style and his indelible experiences as a young artist in the French capital.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Exhibition Schedule:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

(April 27–August 3, 2025)

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

(September 22, 2025–January 11, 2026)

Author Biography

Stephanie L. Herdrich is Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Drawings, The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.