John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Study of a Seated Male in a Roundel for the Rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1921
Collotype print on blue-grey paper , 58.5 x 47.6 cm (23 1/16 x 18 3/4 in.)
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This collotype print reproduces a drawing of a semi-reclining young Black man in charcoal. His body fills a large perfect circle. He is seated cross legged, with his toes peeking out from a large swath of drapery that hides his legs and abdomen. The fabric is draped over his left shoulder, obscuring the left half of his chest but revealing both muscular arms, his right shoulder and right chest. His right arm is bent at the elbow, which is resting on a barely delineated horizontal support. His left arm is unbent, projecting forward, the hand resting lightly in his lap. The man’s head is centered at the top of the circle, turned so that his chin almost touches the drapery covering his left shoulder. His hair is closely cropped. HIs face is not quite in profile: we can see most of his lips and nose and a smudge to indicate his left eye. Both eyes appear to be closed and his body is so relaxed he seems to be sleeping. The light plays dramatically on his skin. The artist’s signature appears in the lower left.
Short Gallery
Commentary
In 1916, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) met Thomas Eugene McKeller (1890–1962), a young, Black elevator attendant, at Boston’s Hotel Vendome. McKeller posed for most of the figures—both male and female—in Sargent’s murals in the Museum of Fine Arts. The painter transformed McKeller into white gods and goddesses, creating soaring allegories of the liberal arts that celebrated the recent expansion of the city’s premier civic museum. Sargent then gave several preparatory drawings of McKeller to Isabella Stewart Gardner, ensuring their preservation in perpetuity.
Following the murals’ completion, the Museum of Fine Arts reproduced several of Sargent’s drawings and sold them in the museum shop. Thomas McKeller posed for this one, not preparatory for any single figure in the final paintings but perhaps a souvenir or commemoration of the project.
Following the murals’ completion, the Museum of Fine Arts reproduced several of Sargent’s drawings and sold them in the museum shop. Thomas McKeller posed for this one, not preparatory for any single figure in the final paintings but perhaps a souvenir or commemoration of the project.