John Singer Sargent

Sargent was commissioned to paint Manuel Garcia (1805-1906) in anticipation of his 101st birthday. He posed the renowned teacher of voice in profile, contrasting García’s luminous head and hands with severe elegance of his clothing. Sargent infused this portrait of advanced age with García’s enduring intellectual strength. 

In anticipation of a group of friends and admirers commissioned John Singer Sargent to paint his portrait. Manuel García (1805-1906) had been a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the voice coach of such legendary opera singers as Jenny Lind. He was renowned for a treatise on the human voice and for the invention of a medical device for the examination of the vocal cords. On the occasion of García’s approaching 101st birthday, John Singer Sargent was commissioned to paint his portrait. Sargent posed García in profile and used selective color and drawing to chronicle his great age and grace. Limiting his palette to dark and light tones, he contrasted García’s luminous head and hands with the severe elegance of his black clothing. This portrait of a centenarian acknowledged García’s diminished physical presence, but it also celebrated his enduring intellectual strength.