'A keen sight for the sign of the races': John Singer Sargent, whiteness and the fashioning of Angloperformativity

Author: Stephenson, Andrew

Source: Visual Culture in Britain, Volume 6, Number 2, Winter 2005 , pp. 207-225(19)

Publisher: Manchester University Press

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Abstract:

This article examines John Singer Sargent's portraits and figure studies from 1880 to 1910 within the context of late-Victorian and Edwardian debates about race and identity in Britain. First, it investigates how Sargent's portraits were critically discussed in terms that highlighted the artist's non-British background, his French training and continental, expatriate experience. Second, it analyses how modern portraiture developed in a way that was ideally suited to the fashioning of white privilege as an aesthetic ideal. Employing frameworks provided by the historically changing discursive and symbolic meanings of whiteness within British society, the essay argues that the reception of Sargent's portraits was made more complex by shifting definitions of Anglo-English selfhood and by evolving modern notions of British nationality in which subtle means of racial distinction and discrimination were developing. Critical response to Sargent's work was further complicated by the fact that many of his sitters belonged to emerging cosmopolitan groups who claimed a diverse range of Anglo racial identities, but who subscribed to non-Anglo cultural and ethical value-systems.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2005-12-01

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