John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Study for Chiron and Achilles for the Rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1916-1921
Charcoal on paper, 47.2 x 63.2 cm (18 9/16 x 24 7/8 in.)
This horizontal charcoal drawing on off-white paper sketches Chiron and Achilles, figures from Greek mythology. Chiron was a centaur, and the teacher of Achilles, a human warrior In this sketch, both are naked and appear twice, with their backs to us and gesturing energetically. On our left, we see Chiron, with his muscular human torso and arms raised, looking over his shoulder at Achilles, who rides astride Chiron’s horse-formed lower body. Achilles, who is smaller and appears younger than Chiron, has his right arm crooked at the elbow and his left arm raised. The same two figures are repeated to our right. The horse body of Chiron is rendered sketchily and continuously, and there is some shading, principally on the figures of Chiron to our left and Achilles to our right. The drawing is signed on the lower right by the artist.
Short Gallery
Commentary
In 1916, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) met Thomas Eugene McKeller (1890–1962), a young, Black elevator attendant, at Boston’s Hotel Vendome. McKeller posed for most of the figures—both male and female—in Sargent’s murals in the Museum of Fine Arts. The painter transformed McKeller into white gods and goddesses, creating soaring allegories of the liberal arts that celebrated the recent expansion of the city’s premier civic museum. Sargent then gave several preparatory drawings of McKeller to Isabella Stewart Gardner, ensuring their preservation in perpetuity.
Balanced on the centaur Chiron, the young Achilles draws back his bow to fire an arrow. Half man, half horse, Chiron—the adopted son of Apollo—mentored Greek hero Achilles in the arts of war and peace. Here, Sargent focuses on the twisting backs of each torso, eventually abandoning this approach for a frontal arrangement.
Balanced on the centaur Chiron, the young Achilles draws back his bow to fire an arrow. Half man, half horse, Chiron—the adopted son of Apollo—mentored Greek hero Achilles in the arts of war and peace. Here, Sargent focuses on the twisting backs of each torso, eventually abandoning this approach for a frontal arrangement.