‘Fashioned by Sargent’ Review: The MFA Brings Sargent’s Portraits to Life

This fall, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has embraced its Bostonian roots to focus on one of the city’s most beloved painters: John Singer Sargent. Yet, the Museum has not used its newest exhibition to focus solely on Sargent’s paintings. “Fashioned by Sargent,” curated by Erica Hirshler and co-organized by Tate Britain, pairs authentic pieces of historic clothing with Sargent’s artwork to show the power that fashion affords viewers. By assembling together Sargent’s most renowned paintings and contextualizing them through fashion, the exhibition brings the artist’s portraits to life.

A visitor entering the exhibition is greeted by a dramatic black curtain raised over a pink wall declaring “Fashioned by Sargent.” This entrance was inspired by the fabric and drapery of the late 19th century, which was when the artist began painting. Beside the wall lies a sprawling timeline which details his biography and some changes in fashion that occurred during his lifetime. The first wall of text that visitors are greeted by quotes Auguste Rodin, who called Sargent “The van Dyck of our time.” It also introduces the exhibit’s preoccupation with fashion, and how it reveals “[Sargent’s] power over his sitters.” The exhibition’s entrance prepares visitors to dive into Sargent’s unique world, over which he exerted great precision and power.

The next gallery is fashioned with a faux window and airy gray walls. The bright space is meant to evoke an artist’s studio, and a picture of Sargent’s own studio on Tite Street displayed on the wall makes the design of the gallery feel grounded. In this studio environment, a number of Sargent’s formal Paris and London portraits are on display. The paintings’ labels highlight Sargent’s keen eye for detail and drapery, as well as his eccentricities; the description of his Eleanora O’Donnell Iselin portrait explains that Sargent refused to paint the sitter in her finery, but instead said that “he would paint her in what she happened to be wearing.” The layering of many Sargent portraits beside one another shows that small details can tell a story about each sitter, and that Sargent’s control over his studio environment, in turn, lent him power over his clients.

After introducing Sargent’s control over the domain of portraiture, the next gallery focuses on the decisions that female sitters made about their own appearances. The lighting turns a bit more gloomy, so that visitors focus solely on the shining portraits lining the walls. Two elegant dresses from the 1890s also grace the space, which allows visitors to compare and contrast the reality of the clothing with Sargent’s interpretation.

The third gallery focuses on the interplay between gender, culture, and fashion. Here, the parallels between the real garments and Sargent’s interpretations are highlighted to the fullest. Most striking is a stunning beetle-encrusted gown which is on display next to Sargent’s larger-than-life “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth” (1889). The dress is the exact garment featured in the portrait, and its glittering allure still beckons despite being over a century old. The room also features alternative perspectives on how Sargent sometimes used sitters clad in culturally-appropriated clothing. Showing the dresses alongside the paintings showcases how and why Sargent and his audiences were drawn to clothing that was labeled as flashy or performative.

As visitors turn the corner into the next gallery, they are greeted with perhaps Sargent’s most famous work, “Madame X” (1883-84). The room, entitled “Fashioning Power,” contains Sargent’s portraits of “people of influence,” according to its wall text. Dramatic lighting and dark walls bring the array of sitters into sharp focus, and the visitor is asked to see how elegant gowns, military uniforms, and simple suits can tell us something about the artist’s clients.

The final gallery of the exhibition focuses on Sargent’s preoccupation with color and fabric, instead of changing fashion. This gallery, with clean white walls, feels calm and intimate. His intimidating formal portraits are replaced by smaller pieces, often depicting his younger sister Violet. Instead of focusing on power and prestige, this room showcases how clothing brought out Sargent’s artistry and Impressionist leanings.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the show — and the key to its success — is its wide selection of loaned art. “Fashioned by Sargent” was co-organized with Tate Britain and contains pieces from The National Portrait Gallery, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée d'Orsay, and various other museums and private collections. Bringing together Sargent’s most famous pieces from across the world lends the exhibition the feeling of being an encyclopedic survey of Sargent’s career. The MFA’s focus on bringing together the artist’s greatest hits not only showcases his diverse skill set, but also covers the unique ways in which fashion defined the different eras of his career.

Overall, “Fashioned By Sargent” has a certain magic to it. Walking through the galleries lined with gowns, it feels as if the sitters have jumped out of the portraits to greet the visitors. The exhibition’s success lies in its ability to contextualize Sargent’s stunning works and provide visitors with the tools to consider portraits not just as stuffy images, but instead as stories that can tell us about the people of the past.

“Fashioned by Sargent” will stay on view until Jan. 15, 2024, in the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.

—Staff writer Hannah E. Gadway can be reached at hannah.gadway@thecrimson.com.