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Designing Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

A view of the entrance to Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends. All gallery views courtesy of The Photo Studio

The exhibition Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends focuses on images of the artist's closest friends and members of his artistic circle. In his portraits of these progressive and creative personalities—many of which were not commissioned—Sargent was able to take more risks, creating images that are more dynamic, esoteric, and provocative than his commissioned works. I sat down with our exhibition designer, Brian Butterfield, to talk about how he conveyed some of these themes in the design of the exhibition. Brian joined the Met staff in November 2014, and brought a dynamic conceptual vision to the design of the show and a fresh approach to imagining the vast exhibition space of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall (gallery 999).

Stephanie Herdrich: What was the concept behind the design of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends?

Brian Butterfield: Most of these portraits, either commissioned or painted as gifts for friends, were intended to be seen in a residential setting. I wanted the exhibition space to feel more architectural, like a series of rooms with aligned doorways and enfilades. I also wanted the wall height to evoke the grandeur of the domestic space of a hundred years ago, as opposed to the cavernous space that is the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, which is not necessarily appropriate for looking at portraits. Even though these are very large portraits, they are also very intimate. Sargent's figures are often close to life-size. For the wall height and the scale of the rooms, I wanted to create a space that volumetrically felt similar to a residence—still grand, but in a more appropriate way.

The design schematic for Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends. Image courtesy of Brian Butterfield and Mort Lebigre

Stephanie Herdrich: How did you convey this concept in the entrance gallery?

Brian Butterfield: Traditionally, visitors to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall are confronted by a title wall, with the signage being an indicator that you have arrived at the right place. Inspired by some of the architectural spaces in Sargent's paintings, I wanted to invite visitors to immediately begin engaging with the works of art through a window. I always have felt that a portal is more inviting than a sign, and more effective at drawing in visitors. I think people psychologically want to go towards where they see other people. There is something inherently voyeuristic about visiting a museum. The window also puts the crowd on view; I think it highlights how our visitors become part of the show. Once an exhibition opens to the public, you don't really get to see it empty. Designing to accommodate large numbers of visitors isn't just an exercise in providing enough room. You have to think about what that will look like, what that experience will feel like. You can't just design for those that get to see the show after hours.

Ultimately, I decided to gild the interior jambs of the window to allude to the gilding of the frames on the paintings. The window provides visitors with a view of the gallery beyond, but the glass still demarks a separation, a threshold of sorts, so that you pause for a moment before proceeding into the first gallery. Graphic designer Mort Lebigre created a modern, streamlined design for the title wall text that we laminated directly to the glass to preserve that spatial depth. It actually plays up the frame-within-a-frame motif.

A view of the Broadway section of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

The painting seen through the window, Garden Study of the Vickers Children, is a garden scene, not a sitting portrait. It suggests an expansive environment; its frame a limit rather than a border. I wanted the window to also play into that idea of framing a view rather than an image as a portal into another setting.

Throughout the exhibition, I placed primary paintings in recessed niches to add a bit of hierarchy. The niches signify which of these figures are very important in terms of the reputation of that work of art and highlight the relationships that are primary to the narrative. These niches are often aligned with the doorways from one gallery to another so that you have an idea in your mind of what's in the next gallery as you look at the works in the section you are in, which reinforces the intent of the curatorial narrative. These groups of friends are from distinct periods in Sargent's life, but they all blend together.

Stephanie Herdrich: We carefully considered the wall colors. Can you describe the thought process behind the selections?

Brian Butterfield: We looked to Sargent's paintings for the palette of the exhibition, but we knew we wanted to avoid the dramatic, rich colors traditionally used in Sargent exhibitions. Though Sargent's portraits were often shown in highly decorative domestic interiors, we wanted to signify a different approach to Sargent.

A view of the Paris section of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

The first room, which is Sargent's Paris years, has the widest variety of color palettes within the works. Because it's also the largest room of the exhibition, it needed a color that was more neutral and went with sort of a rather creamy off-white (Farrow & Ball Tallow). Madame X also figured prominently in the color choice for that room. Her distinctive skin tone is so significant, and we wanted something harmonious. In the second room of the exhibition, the Broadway section, the primary piece is the Garden Study of the Vickers Children, so we chose a pale blue (Farrow & Ball Parma Gray). I think the blue suggests the sky of these outdoor scenes, plays off of some blue hints in the painting's flowers, and offsets the dark green of the painting.

The London section is heavily populated by performers, musicians, and people Sargent knew from his artistic circle. Most of those people are painted on very dark backgrounds to evoke the stage or, in the case of Carmencita, a dancehall. Many have Sargent's signature white highlights, which really standout on a dark wall color. We chose Farrow & Ball Down Pipe, a dark gray. Paintings such as those of Carmencita or Ellen Terry feature rich, detailed costumes and a very dark color palette that is offset by a darker wall color.

A view of the London section of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

We focused on the transitions between rooms and colors, starting with lighter colors and gradually getting darker as you move to the center of the exhibition. Architecturally, the London section is the middle gallery of the exhibition. The Farrow & Ball paints have a very soft, earthy feel to them, and that dark gray works as a perfect transition to signify the middle of the show. From there, we moved back to lighter colors in tones similar to those used in the earlier galleries, even repeating the pale blue of the Broadway gallery in the last gallery, where we return to a large number of outdoor landscape settings.

We didn't want a different color in every room. Looking at works from very different periods on the same wall color, I think, actually allows you to connect the paintings just based on the tone of the walls. I wanted consistency in the galleries spatially, so the colors become important indicators that each room is a different geographic setting.

Stephanie Herdrich: Are you happy with how the exhibition turned out?

Brian Butterfield: I'm very happy with how it turned out. When you actually see all of these paintings together—over one hundred different works of radically different scale—there's infinite variations of how you can arrange them. There's always a moment of panic until the painting comes out of the crate and gets hung on the wall. Then you realize that the vantage point that you've designed is successful—that the experience of the painting from afar as well as up close in relationship to the paintings that are next to it adds to your experience of that work of art. Then I can breathe a sigh of relief.

A view of a connection to the different sections of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

The relationships between these characters are so intertwined and so captivating, and you actually get a sense of that as you go through the show. A show that's this big needs to still be exciting and still feel new when you are in the last gallery. I wanted to create an experience that wasn't only linear from the entrance of the exhibition to the gift shop; I wanted to make sure that the gallery space was flexible enough so that you could turn around and go back to moments that you've passed and that you want to reexamine—and that if you did that, you didn't feel that you were going the wrong direction.

A view of other connections between the different sections of Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

You learn so much about Sargent as you walk through an exhibition of this size. After passing forty or fifty portraits, you want to turn around and reexamine the things you've seen. You notice details in the jewelry, the upholstery of the furniture, or in the drapery of a certain figure's dress. You want to run back and look at previous paintings, which you then see in a new light because you've noticed something that was three galleries away. I love actually seeing visitors turn around and walk back to look at a painting again, or point at something they can see back in the distance that they want to talk about. It's very rewarding.

#Metdoppelgangers: Senior Designer Brian Butterfield channeling Dr. Pozzi at Home. Photograph by Stephanie Herdrich


Departments: The American Wing, Design

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