John Singer Sargent

The careers of Joseph Lindon Smith and John Singer Sargent overlapped in Boston, England, and Dublin, New Hampshire. In the 1890s, both received commissions to paint murals for the Boston Public Library. In 1919, they met again as friends of friends of Henry James, then living in Surrey, England. Back in Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner was another mutual friend and patron, whom they advised on paintings to purchase for her collection at Fenway Court. This view of an artist sketching outdoors depicts Boston artist Dwight Blaney (1865-1944) on the rocky shoreline of lronbound, an island off the coast of Maine. Like Dublin, Ironbound appealed to artists for its natural beauty and rustic informality, free from the social obligations of more fashionable summer resorts. Sargent visited the Blaneys in Maine on several occasions. During this period he was also a regular guest in Dublin, where the Smiths and William and Alexander James -- nephews of Sargent's friend Henry James -- lived.