Examines the life and career of nineteenth-century American artist John Singer Sargent, looking at his oil portraits, watercolors, and murals, and includes over three hundred illustrations in color and black-and-white.

When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. It is only when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the cultivated but worthless Gilbert Osmond that she discovers that wealth is a two-edged sword...

An introduction to the painter's work, 'Sargent: The Masterworks' features 100 of his most beloved paintings. Illustrating all aspects of his diverse oeuvre portraits, landscapes, mural commissions in oil and watercolour, this handsome new book includes works from both private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art's infamous 'Madame X'. Author Stephanie L. Herdrich draws on a wealth of new research to provide both an essential...

"The relationship American impressionist painters had with Italy, particularly with Florence, was very intense between the mid nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth. After the Civil War, hundreds of painters came to Italy. Florence, Venice and Rome had by long tradition been the centre of the Grand Tour and were places made legendary by those who wanted to know and study the art of the past, while also exercising a powerful fascination...