Indeterminate Sketches

1887

“Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose”: a triumph, bought by the Tate

Sargent's first major success at the Royal Academy comes in 1887 with the enthusiastic response to “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose”, a large piece painted on site of two young girls lighting lanterns in an English garden in Broadway in the Cotswolds; it is immediately purchased by the Tate Gallery.

1887–1888

His first solo exhibition in Boston

In Boston Sargent is honoured with his first solo exhibition, which presents 22 of his paintings; there he becomes friends with the painter Dennis Miller Bunker.

1887–1888

His first professional trip to New York and Boston

His first trip to New York and Boston as a professional artist produces over twenty important commissions, among them portraits of the Boston art patron Isabella Stewart Gardner and of Mrs. Adrian Iselin, wife of a New York businessman.

summer 1888

Dennis Miller Bunker comes to paint with him outdoors

In the summer of 1888 Dennis Miller Bunker travels to England to paint with Sargent en plein air; he is the subject of Sargent's 1888 painting “Dennis Miller Bunker Painting at Calcot”.

c. 1890

Elected to the Royal Academy

Sargent is elected an associate of the Royal Academy and is made a full member three years later.

1890s

Fourteen portrait commissions a year

In the 1890s Sargent averages fourteen portrait commissions per year, among them the genteel “Lady Agnew of Lochnaw” (1892) and the equally well received “Mrs. Hugh Hammersley” (1892); as a portrait painter in the grand manner he is referred to as “the Van Dyck of our times”.