Gallery  August 14, 2025  Danielle Vander Horst

Emily Sargent’s Introspective Paintings at The Met

Photo: Danielle Vander Horst

Exhibition welcome and overview of Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family featuring Sea with Boat & Figure, Pride’s Crossing (1923) by Emily Sargent. 

The Met’s Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family presents a thoughtfully curated glimpse of the Sargent family, centering primarily on the long overlooked watercolor paintings of Emily, sister to the illustrious John Singer Sargent

Tucked into an intimate corner of the American Wing, the exhibit consists of a single corridor lined with paintings and two glass cases containing sketch and art books. Twenty-six watercolor paintings by Emily, drawn from a recent gift to the Met by the artists’ heirs, comprise the focal points of the exhibit, while additional works by her brother and even her parents provide companions and parallels through which the family portrait is composed. 

Photo: Danielle Vander Horst

View at Varramista, Foliage (1908) by Emily Sargent. Watercolor, graphite, and wax resist on paper.

The curators’ well-crafted text and image combinations present Emily’s life as a cosmopolitan one with a key theme amongst her paintings being her travels across Europe and the Mediterranean. Born in Florence, Italy to American parents, Emily grew up surrounded by the great collections and monuments of Europe. She, along with her siblings, was encouraged to nurture her artistic talent throughout her childhood, something she would continue to do as she grew and travelled widely from London to Cairo and countless places between. In total, Emily would produce over 400 paintings during her lifetime. 

It is clearly apparent that Emily possessed a keen sensitivity for the feelings and moods of her subjects. As she moved from place to place, one can see how different landscapes and cultural settings brought about changes in the style and general mood of her paintings. The breezy and ephemeral impression of the Brittany coast contrasts starkly with the blockier and bolder colors of the Tuscan countryside. Paintings by her brother, John, round out the family story, displaying additional views of the landscapes and faces that would have filled Emily’s life.

Photo: Danielle Vander Horst

Left: Mountain Torrent (ca. 1910), John Singer Sargent. Watercolor, graphite, and wax crayon on white wove paper. Right: Simplon Waterfall (ca. 1910), Emily Sargent. Watercolor and graphite on paper. The two images side by side showcase the differences in the siblings styles and techniques. 

Perhaps most delightful is the section of the exhibition titled “Painting Together,” wherein Emily and John’s particular relationship as close artistic companions is demonstrated through matching paintings. Often painting different views of the same landscape or, more rarely, the exact same subjects, the siblings spent a substantial amount of time travelling and creating in tandem. 

Photo: Danielle Vander Horst

The Brook, Purtud (1906-1908), Emily Sargent, John Singer Sargent. Watercolor on paper. Curators note that both siblings seem to have worked on this painting during one of their many painting excursions.

The Brook, Purtud (1906-1908) is also at least one example of what curators believe to be a collaborative painting, the style and composition pointing towards both siblings' hands being present on the canvas. In all the other examples of paired paintings within this section, it is clear that Emily was not lacking in artistic talent whatsoever, matching (if not in some cases outdoing) her brother’s companion pieces in both aesthetic quality and composition. 

Herein lies the one major critique this reviewer would make. 

While the exhibit purports to reveal the struggles women artists faced in the late nineteenth century, this thread is relatively lost amidst the exploration of the Sargent family and Emily’s space within it as daughter, sister, and artist. It goes without saying that her brother, John, experienced far more commercial success and notoriety than Emily. However, the social or even personal mechanisms as to why this was the case, and how it was this way for other women artists of the time, is never directly addressed. 

Photo: Danielle Vander Horst

Sea with Boat & Figure, Pride’s Crossing (1923) by Emily Sargent. Watercolor and opaque watercolor on paper.

Was Emily denied further artistic training, or did she not desire it? Did she lack personal ambition to pursue art as a career, or was she told it was not possible for her to do so? This reviewer does recognize that these questions may have been impossible to answer in the absence of records such as diaries or journals– though it is noted that amongst all the personal letters and documents quoted within the exhibit, none are written by Emily herself. 

However, documentation of women artists during this time period and recent scholarly treatment of them is sufficient enough to have incorporated a few sentences here and there about why in particular gender, and even perhaps contemporary family dynamics, played a larger role in artists like Emily being relegated to the shadows of their male counterparts. 

Beyond this, Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family provides a wonderful view of Emily Sargent as a talented and thoughtful artist, bringing into the light works very much worth seeing and admiring.

Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family is on view in the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 8, 2026 and is free with standard admission.

40.779402418715, -73.9634031

Emily Sargent: Portrait of a Family
Start Date:
July 1, 2025
End Date:
March 8, 2026
Venue:
The Met Fifth Avenue
About the Author

Danielle Vander Horst

Dani is a freelance artist, writer, and a trained archaeologist. Her research specialty focuses on religion in the Roman Northwest, but her educational background encompasses more broadly Greek and Roman art, architecture, materiality, and history. She holds multiple degrees in Classics and Archaeology from the University of Rochester, Cornell University, and Duke University, and she is currently completing a PhD in History of Art & Archaeology at Cornell University.

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