1856
Year
In Context
John Singer Sargent
was born January,
12th (approximately),
in Florence, the son of American parents, Dr. Fitzwilliam Sargent
(1820-1889)
and Mary Newbold Singer Sargent (1826-1902) who had been on vacation.
His parents had
left Philadelphia
for Europe in the fall of 1854 a year after the death of their first
child
(Mary Newbold born '51, died July of '53) leaving Mrs. Sargent crushed.
Mrs. Sargent insisted they travel to Europe to regain her health and so
they did the following autumn (1854) after Dr. Sargent took a
leave
of absence from his position as Attending Surgeon at Wills Hospital and
his promising career in Philadelphia. He had every intention of
returning
upon the successful emotional convalescence of his wife. However, while
over there, Mary got pregnant again with John and he is born.
That year the
family spends the summer
in Geneva and the winter in Rome. Mrs. Sargent once more finds herself
pregnant.
(map)
1857
(1 year old)
Year
In Context
His sister Emily is
born in Rome
(1856-1936). Any pretense that Mrs. Sargent is going to consent to
return
to the United States is pretty much shattered by the second birth of
their
child and Dr. Sargent resigns his position as surgeon at Wills Hospital
at the age of 37.
They spend the
spring and summer
in Vienna.
(Austria)
1858-59
(2-3 years old)
Year
In Context
John's maternal
grandmother dies
in Rome. The family spends the summer in Switzerland.
(Switzerland)
1860-61
(4-5 years old)
Year
In Context
Back to Rome in the
fall of 1860.
Emily has an accident which leaves her spine deformed. Mrs. Sargent is
incapable of handling the illness of her daughter and Dr. Sargent
spends
a great deal of time aiding Emily. Mrs. Sargent is already pregnant
with
another child.
The first known
drawing of John is
done of Dr. Sargent writing a letter to his own father which he
encloses.
February 1, '61, a
new daughter,
Mary Winthrop "Minnie" is born (1861-1865).
The family spends
the spring and
summer in Switzerland and September they travel back to Nice for the
winter.
Dr. Sargent follows
the Civil War
in the press with intense interest.
The continual
change of local nannies
from city to city and country to country is exposing John to the
various
European languages which he begins to pick up without accent.
1862
(6 years old)
Year
In Context
Nice. The family
lives in the Maison
Virello, rue Grimaldi. Sargent becomes friends with Ben del Castillo, a
son of other expatriate Americans (originally from Cuba).
The family travels
to London to consult
doctors about Emily's back, and then on to Switzerland in July. By
October
they return once more to Nice for the winter.
1863
(7 years old)
Year
In Context
May, in response to
growing English
Southern sympathies for the Civil War, Dr. Sargent publishes a pamphlet
entitled England, the United States, and the Southern Confederacy,
in which he pleads for reason on the part of England to not stoop to
short-term
self interest (the supply of cotton to England's mills) but long term
ideals
-- politically and economically.
They find the
American expatriate
community as fractious as their native country and one neighbor at Nice
flies the Confederate flag at every news of a Union defeat.
Switzerland from
June to October
and Nice again for late autumn and winter.
1865
(9 years old)
Year
In Context
Minnie, John's
youngest sister (age
4), catches a bronchial infection which she can't shake and her health
slips fast. They travel to Pau, France with the hope of an improved
climate
but find the weather is no better and she dies.
It seems the only
way Mrs. Sargent
knows how to cope is to travel more.
May, they are in
Biarritz
Dr. Sargent plans a
trip alone back
to the States to visit his parents. The rest of the family remains in
Switzerland
and rejoins Dr. Sargent in London by September. They spend
October
in Paris and November in Nice.
1866
(10 years old)
Year
In Context
By '66 John has met
his friend Violet
Paget (a.k.a. Vernon Lee). The family spends the summer around Lake
Como
and the Engadine and then returns to Nice in the fall where Mrs.
Sargent
is once more pregnant. John, Emily and Violet spend time painting in
watercolors
with Mrs. Sargent who painted often as recreation.
1867
(11 years old)
Year
In Context
Sargent and sister Emily 1867,
age 11
Winter in Nice.
March 7, another
child is born to
the family, this time a brother -- Fitzwilliam Winthrop (1867-1869).
The
baby's health is poor.
The itinerary only
gets fuller. In
the summer the family travels to Paris, the Rhine, Muich, the Tyrol,
Salzburg,
Milan, then Genoa. In October the family returns to Nice for the winter.
1868
(12 years old)
Year
In Context
By March the family
is in Spain,
May they are in Biarritz then back to Nice by October. Dr. Sargent sees
a need for formal education for John, and at Nice John attends a school
run by an English clergyman and his wife -- but the stay is brief.
November, Mrs.
Sargent -- ever restless
-- pushes the family on to Rome where they live at 17 Trinita de Monti,
above the Piazza di Spagna. Here, John helps the German-American
landscape painter Carl
Welsch (1828-1904) in his studio and copies watercolors.
1869
(13 years old)
Year
In Context
They Winter in Rome
and by May the
family travels to Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii and from Padua to
Bozen
(seemingly never resting with the itinerary almost frantic). On these
trips
John writes to his friend Ben
del Castillo.
On June 28, John's
bother, Fitzwilliam
Winthrop dies at Kissingen.
July, the family is
in St. Moritz
and Mrs. Sargent finds herself pregnant again, then to Florence by
October
where John paints copies at the Bargello.
1870
(14 years old)
Year
In Context
Still in Florence
on February 9th,
Violet Sargent is born (1870-1955) -- the youngest and last
of the children.
John attends
M. Joseph Domengs
day school, in the former Convent I Servi di Maria in the Piazza della
SS Annumziata and has dancing lessons at 43 via Romana.
May, they are in
Venice and Lake
Maggiore
June to October in
Switzerland where
John paints a number of Alpine watercolors.
October, they are
back in Florence
for the winter.
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