Among the museum-going college students, there are those who will become artists and those who will be art historians, but some are so appreciative, so enthralled with the art they see, that they eventually decide to forge their own personal museum to become collectors, surrounding themselves with the art they love.
One such student, upon visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and seeing John Singer Sargent's painting, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit," was so moved by it that she and her husband became collectors.
Sargent's captivating work still hangs in the MFA, right now on display in the "Americans In Paris" exhibit, a perfect sister exhibit to this woman's now-extensive collection, "Sargent, Chase, Cassatt: Master Paintings from a Private Collection," on show in the MFA's Hilles Gallery.
The exhibit holds 23 works, including pieces by John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Childe Hassam, and Georgia O'Keefe, all of which come together as a cohesive whole under themes of versatility and bright, intimate subjects.
The married collectors, who were not named in the exhibit, shared a passion for paintings similar to Sargent's style and that of the French Impressionists, being attracted to the easy brushstroke and the liberal use of wet-on-wet paint that gives the canvas a spontaneous look. Most of the subjects involve women, usually alone and independent, representing the "modern woman" of the time: intelligent and bold.
Sargent's "Rosina - Capri" (1878) is a striking portrait of a feminine subject, a painting that, while remaining fairly realistic, is less polished than his other works in the collection. Its subject is a tarantella dancer, and her dark skin and hair is intensely defined against the bright white of the sky and architecture. The free brushstrokes in the sky imitate the subject's dance, and its vibrating looseness makes the graceful arch of her arm an even more confident focal point of the painting.
Similarly, Sargent's "Study for Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" (circa1885) is freer than the final painting, focusing on a young girl staring into a glowing lantern that sheds a pink glow on her curious face. In the study, Sargent borders on the abstract, with rushed strokes and bright, basic colors. The lantern is like a whirling beehive in her hands, and she wears a bright, undefined pink flower in her hair, lighting her face even more than the lantern. While this is one of many preliminary sketches for a final, large-scale painting, the couple's decision to purchase this particular work shows a certain radical view of art; their interest in spontaneity in art is forward-thinking.
The couple was also attracted to paintings that reflected times of great change. Two of William Merritt Chase's works on view are traditional seascapes, though his brushwork reflects that of the Impressionists. Another, "At the Shore" (1882-86), is particularly striking, depicting the chaos of tourism sweeping the beaches of Coney Island in a loose, wet style. Juxtaposed next to his other beach scenes, this painting comments on the lack of privacy and calm, and his rendering of hoards of beachgoers vibrates noisily against the fairly flat, unembellished sky and beach.
The collection shows an awareness of Chase's wide range of styles and his admiration for the masters, Edouard Manet and Diego Velazquez. Chase's "At Play" (1895) and "Portrait of Mrs. L" (1891-92) hang next to each other, similar in their dark, flat backgrounds and bold figures, and are extremely different from his seascapes. The women in these - both young and old - stare boldly out at the painter, a statement characteristic of Manet's shocking compositions and reflected in other works in the show, such as Dewing's "Lady in Lavender" (1910) and Frieseke's "White Lilies" (1911).
The influence of Japanese art is particularly noticeable in this collection of paintings, between Mary Casssatt - who, upon seeing Kitagawa Utamaro's woodblock prints in 1890, found her own strong line in prints of mothers and children - and Chase's use of Japanese fabrics.
What permeates the entire show is an overwhelming sense of the influenced artist and the idea that each painter shows signs of the endless learning and changing of a student. Each painting in this exhibit is unabashed in its origin, and the artists all show a willingness to be changed by other art and different styles.
It seems right that this collector, a student of art history who was so thrilled by a trip to a museum one day, should be attracted to artists so like her in mindset: those who allow their inspiration to be a part of their life, who base their taste on having one that's broadly defined.
