Please meet Lady Agnew of Locknaw painted by John Singer Sargent in 1893. This portrait is probably his most famous work painted ten years after his most infamous Madame X. Both were pieces of movement for Sargent’s career with the first effectively banishing him from London and the second catapulting back into the gilded, polished and superficial society of the Edwardian elite. He became the painter of choice for this group with a following that could have been described as a cult. One critic penned, “London is at his feet…he has had a cracking success.”  The commissions rolled in.

Spending just a few minutes with this portrait challenges one to think of adequate superlatives. Sargent’s gift for painting surfaces and textures challenges our belief that this fabric was actually accomplished with paint. His brilliant passages from highlight to shadow in an exquisite palette give this work a breathtaking and timeless appeal. It is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery.

The history of this artist seems to name the vagaries of the world and expose the flimsy, timebound nature of criticism. Sargent painted two lovely women in two lovely dresses and the world took it from there.

Ah, the world, filled with art critics, political pundits, neighborhood gossips, acidic folks who release their power in a split second, triggered and ragefully expressing their free speech to what end?  What is gained? What is solved? What is added to the value of our lives and society?  What skills are behind their plunder? 

And then there is a person with a brush who lifts all of us closer to God.

Amen. 

In gratitude, faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty
Minister of Children and Families
Montview Church