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The Master and His Pupils

1914
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
During the late summer of 1914, Sargent was caught in the Austrian (present-day Italian) state of Tyrol when England and France declared war on Austria. Sargent and his companions were forced to wait there for several months for the necessary travel documents to return home. Among the many paintings he created during this period is this bold landscape with painter Adrian Stokes (1854–1935) at his easel. In his memoir of Sargent, Stokes describes the artifice that underpins the composition: while Stokes posed for the "master," a single woman posed for each of the three "pupils." The landscape is a tour de force of sensuous and expressive brushwork, especially in the sunlit rocky foreground.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Master and His Pupils
  • Artist: John Singer Sargent (American, Florence 1856–1925 London)
  • Date: 1914
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
  • Credit Line: Lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Hayden Collection–Charles Henry Hayden Fund
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing