Margarett Sargent
Margarett Sargent, Beyond Good and Evil (self-portrait), 1950, oil on canvas, 40×23”. Courtesy of Berry-Hill Gallery.
Born just before the turn of the century, (1892-1978), Margarett Sargent, a fourth cousin of John Singer Sargent, was an exuberant socialite, iconoclastic wit, audacious lover—and mother and wife—from Brahmin Boston. She was also a uniquely talented and professionally recognized painter. Her brightly colored oils, pastels and watercolors, influenced by Matisse and Picasso, were widely exhibited in the 1920s and ’30s.
Her marriage in 1920 to rich Boston businessman Quincy Shaw McKean became a battleground of wills and temperaments, and Sargent had numerous affairs with men and women, including novelist Jane Bowles. She began drinking heavily in the 1930s while trying to balance the demands of raising four children and an artistic career. In 1948, Shaw McKean announced that he was divorcing her to marry tennis champion Kay Winthrop.
In her early 40s, she abruptly stopped making art. Suffering from severe depression, using alcohol to quell the growing conflict between her creative and social drives, she spent the last years of her life in and out of sanatoriums undergoing shock treatment or traveling with a chauffeur through Europe, estranged from her family and isolated from friends and colleagues.
I am a huge fan of John Singer Sargent, but did not know about his cousin. I also read your Chanel post, you might enjoy
http://bartboehlert.blogspot.com/2008/09/coco-chanel.html
Cheers,
BB
BB,
It’s not all that surprising that you wouldn’t have known about Margarett Sargent. Her rebellious and controversial life left her open to ridicule and criticism, most notably from her own family who demonized her throughout her lifetime. Sadly, her chauffeur became her only confidant and friend in the final years of her life.
I am an artist who accidentally discovered Margarett Sargent through a move into her former home, “Prides” in Beverly, Massachusetts. The biography of her life written by her grand-daughter, Honor Moore, paints a dramatic biographical account in novel form, of a woman who should be celebrated much more than she has been throughout art history. Living in the home while reading the story created an unexplainable personal attachment to the artist, and the revelation that this was a real person who had real struggles against a life of convention and a duality of place in society, and the art circles of the times in which she lived.
Todd,
What a fascinating post. I have long loved the work of Margarett Sargent and share your belief that she was overshadowed by her more famed kin. I can readily understand your “personal attachment” to her — the thought of actually residing in a home she once inhabited is astonishing. The tales the walls could tell. My own sensitivities to such attachments are quite pronounced; I still remember an overnight stay in New York many years ago that had me put up at the Algonquin hotel where I spent a sleepless night reminiscing over the stories of the legendary “round table.” I could almost feel Dorothy Parker in the room with me.
Thank you for posting this and reminding me to pick up a copy of The White Blackbird by Sargent’s grand-daughter.
I am currently reading WHite Blackbird and thoroughly enjoying it. How wonderful that you should be living in her former home. Linda/CT
Linda, I had not visited the site in a while and just discovered your response. It is a great story written extremely well, albeit with a wealth of information. I could envision it as an epic movie, however, only if it is true to the story as written. Glad you were able to read it.