Out of print.

From the publisher:

This work is the first volume of the definitive catalogue raisonne of Sargent's works in oil, watercolor, and pastel. This volume covers Sargent's formative years in France and England and his first professional trip to America in 1887. His subjects range from family and friends to writers and other artists, as well as the famous Robert Louis Stevenson looking gaunt and the actress Ellen Terry in her role as Lady MacBeth. It was also during this creative period that Sargent painted the well-known group portrait "The Daughters of Edward D. Boit" and the portrait of Madame Gautreau, the controversial and exotic "Madame X." Volume 1 is illustrated with 80 black-and-white and 180 color reproductions. Each sitter is identified, with discussion on the context of the painting, along with provenance and exhibition history.

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This magnificent book is the first volume of the definitive catalogue raisonné of the works in oil, watercolor, and pastel of the beloved painter John Singer Sargent. This volume catalogues portraits by Sargent from 1874, when he began his training in Paris, and covers pictures painted while he was establishing his reputation in Paris, during his early years in England, and on his first professional visit to America in 1887. Volume two will record portraits painted from 1890 until the end of the artist's career. The entire catalogue raisonné will bring together nearly 600 portraits, some 1,600 subject pictures and landscapes, and three mural cycles.

The early portraits in this book range from private images of Sargent's family and friends to studies of writers and fellow artists and formal portraits of Parisian celebrities and patrons in France, England, and America. These include his most controversial work, Madame Gautreau, and studies of some of the major artistic figures of the day: Claude Monet, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ellen Terry in her role as Lady Macbeth.

Each work is catalogued in depth, with a biographical account of the sitter, a discussion of the contemporary context of the painting, and a detailed provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Almost all of the paintings are shown, mostly in color, including some that have never been reproduced before. The fruit of some sixteen years of research, this valuable reference provides a broad and comprehensive view of Sargent's art.