I recently paid a visit to the Sargent and Fashion exhibition at the Tate Britain in London. The exhibition focuses on how artist John Singer Sargent maximised the impact of clothes and fashion in his portraits. And it even has some of the outfits on display alongside their portraits. Singer Sargent was painting portraits in the late 1800s and early 1900s, so we got to see lots of fabulous examples of the fashions of those times.
I thought it was a fascinating exhibition, so I wanted to share some of my highlights with you in case you aren’t able to see the exhibition yourself. (It’s running until 7th July 2024, so there’s still a little bit of time to catch it!)
Artistic licence
The exhibition starts with an example of how Sargent carefully manipulated the sitter’s clothes to create maximum impact in his portraits.
In the first room, we saw both a portrait of Lady Sassoon wearing a black opera cloak, and the opera cloak. Looking at the opera cloak, you can see a little of the pink lining showing at the sleeves. However in his portrait, Sargent has arranged the cloak so that its lining also forms a diagonal sash of pink across the front of the body.
The exhibition shares an anecdote from one of Sargent’s sitters recalling ‘the painful experience of Sargent arranging draperies using pins “which often pricked”’.
La Camencita
Another portrait and outfit on display combo was that of La Camencita (Carmen Dauset Moreno). Carmen was a famous Spanish dancer of the time.
Lots of interesting details to admire on the dress!
Comparing the dress and the portrait, it’s clear that Carmen must have been wearing some volumising undergarments for the portrait.
Something I found interesting was that Sargent owned a lot of the clothes in his portraits. This dress was one such example. It was also noted that years after painting this portrait, Sargent sent the Carmencita dress to his friend Sybil Sassoon for her to wear.
Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth
Ellen Terry was a famous British actor, known for her Shakespearean roles. Sargent’s portrait of her as Lady Macbeth is filled with drama!
Her Lady Macbeth outfit is equally impressive to behold.
The costume has lots of techniques, including embroidery and crochet, to admire. The dress even includes countless beetle wings to add extra lustre and drama.
It was displayed along with a quote from Sargent to Alice Comyns Carr, the costume designer:
“You and I ought to have signed that together… for I could not have done it if you had not invented the dress.”
Fabric keepsake
I was quite taken with the dress in this portrait and thought that it might have been trimmed with embroidery. However the caption described the dress as being trimmed with gold lace.
Next to the portrait was this fragment of velvet from the dress that the sitter, Mary Hammersley, wore.
After her death, Mary’s sister labelled the swatch “part of the gown in which my beloved Sister, Mrs. Hugh Hammersley, sat to Sargent”. So it obviously became a family keepsake.
Beautiful dresses galore
There were so many beautiful dresses in the portraits and I happily spent quite a while admiring them all!
This black and white outfit with a couple of hints of red was one of my favourites.
There were also a couple of dresses on display that were examples from the time, rather than being the exact dresses from a portrait. I still found them delightful to admire!
Such as this House of Worth pearl embroidered dress.
Each of the faux-pearls was individually attached, explaining the hefty price tag of up to £25,000 in today’s money!
Here’s another House of Worth dress showing the exceptional skill of the cutters and seamstresses.
The roses on the fabric line up perfectly across each seam. I also found it interesting to note that it looked like the draping fabric across the front bodice was attached on top of a simpler base bodice.
Sargent – an amazing talent for painting fashion
And here are a couple more of Sargent’s portraits to admire…
I was really taken with how well he manages to capture the fabrics.
When you look at the paintings up close, you can often see what look like quite broad brush strokes. But from just a little distance, it all seems to perfectly capture the folds and textures of the fabrics. Quite a skill indeed!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of some of my highlights from the Sargent and Fashion exhibition!
Which is your favourite portrait or outfit?
I love that rose colored velvet dress trimmed in gold lace, just a little every day outfit!😂
It’s beautiful isn’t it! And yes, just the thing to wear when popping down to the shops, corset and all!! 😂
Somewhere – I’m pretty sure in one of Cathy Hay’s posts – I’ve read that the technique from the gold dress, of draping a complex bodice over a simple underlayer, was a favorite in the House of Worth. Among other things, it made the process of fitting bespoke dresses for distant clients easier; the simple layer would be altered to fit, the pre-made fancy layer arranged over it and pinned or tacked in place for wearing with whatever overlap was necessary to wrap the wearer attractively. The complex draping didn’t have to be altered seam by seam. It was also easier to alter the dress to pass it on to someone else with a different body shape.
Ahh, that makes so much sense! Thank you for sharing! Fascinating and very encouraging to know that such practical steps are taken even in haute couture.
PS – I forgot to thank you for this wonderful, absorbing post. Thank you!