...mainly I saw other people's backs, heads, and feet. After making my way through the maze of cell phone camera snapping crowds I found myself pushed out the other side,head spinning, and in search of a peaceful spot. I walked through the glass doors of the wonderful America's Wing to be greeted by John Singer Sargent's "Daughter's of Edward Boit" --
... their sadness, and my knowledge of their tragedies, didn't help my mood, but as I turned the corner I stopped. The gallery was quiet and cool and the work that pulled me toward it changed my day and transported me to a summer garden at twilight.
"Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose", the title taken from a popular song of the time, is perhaps one of Sargent's best known works. The painting resides at the Tate Gallery but the MFA has a study of Dorothy Barnard one of the two sisters portrayed in the full work. It is this study that I have always loved best. The wonderment on this young girl's face, the quiet stillness as she lights the lantern,the exquisite glow that lights the whole work against the coolness of the gardens. It captures the joy of a child's summer, the magic of a summer's eve, and the wonderful innocence that only a child can bring forth. I never grow tired of seeing it, its like visiting a fairytale, but on this day it was as if I was seeing it for the first time.
Johns Singer Sargent spent the summer of 1885 in the Cotswolds. The "scandal" of his Madame X painting had left him reconsidering his work and he sought refuge with friends. In the gardens each late afternoon Sargent saw the children at play and was captivated by the image of their faces lit by the glow of paper lanterns at dusk. Each evening at sunset Sargent would paint for just a few minutes,between two to twenty minutes each time, to grab the perfect moment that expressed the transition into twilight, trying to capture the exact colors and light of not the sunset but the effect of the light with the lanterns on that garden and on those faces. As if he did not want to let go of this magical time, Sargent would do more studies for this piece than any painting and he would take two years to finish this work. "Carnation,Lily,Lily, Rose became the work that restored his reputation and happily the study of Dorothy Barnard restored my summer's day.
