Musée d'Orsay

John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - London, 1925), along with James McNeill Whistler, was the most famous American artist of his generation and certainly one of the greatest painters of the 19th and early 20th century. Revered in the United States (his Portrait of Madame X is regarded as the Mona Lisa of the American art collection conserved by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), he is also famous in the United Kingdom, where he spent most of his career. In France, however, his name and work remain largely unknown, a situation that the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay in fall 2025 hopes to change.

Curatorship

Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Curator of Graphic Arts and Paintings, Musée d'Orsay

Paul Perrin, Director of Collections and Curation, Musée d'Orsay

in collaboration with Stephanie Herdrich, Alice Pratt Brown, Curator of American Paintings and Drawings, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The exhibition traces the life of this artist, born in Italy and a Parisian by adoption, who also had a brilliant career in the United States. A highly talented portraitist, he was much sought-after by a cosmopolitan elite, celebrities, the Parisian smart set and the first American film stars. His life was marked by decisive encounters and friendships with men of letters, such as Tolstoy in Russia and George Bernard Shaw in Paris, with whom he shared a vegetarian lifestyle, somewhat unusual for the era. In addition to the portraits that made his name, the exhibition also highlights his animal sculptures along with his work on behalf of animal rights, of which he was an ardent advocate well ahead of his time.

Curatorship 

In Paris

Edouard Papet, General Curator of Sculpture, Musée d'Orsay

Anne-Lise Desmas, Senior Curator and Head of the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Cécilie Champy, Curator and Director of the Musée Zadkine, Paris

In Milan 

Paola Zatti, Curator, Manager of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan;

Omar Cucciniello, Curator at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan.