John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Study of a Seated Male Nude for the Rotunda or Grand Staircase of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1916-1921
Charcoal on paper, 63.3 x 47.8 cm (24 15/16 x 18 13/16 in.)
This vertical study in charcoal on paper by John Singer Sargent depicts a male nude sitting on a cushion with his legs bent and spread apart, as if riding a horse, and his toes but not his heels contacting the lower surface. The toes of his right foot rest on a low box slightly elevating his right hip, thus allowing him to lean toward his left side, his left shoulder lowered and left arm and hand falling straight down between his legs, obscuring his genitals. His right arm is outstretched to his right side, the right hand not sketched. The model’s hair is short and cut squarely at the corners of his forehead, his eyes cast downward, his nose and chin sharply pointed, and his narrow lips closed. His skin is variously darkened in several areas, suggesting he may be dark skinned. His body is slender and muscular with well defined muscles in his arms, legs, neck and abdomen.
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.
Poised on a cushion with arms raised, Thomas McKeller poses for pairs of nude figures modeled in plaster relief above the rotunda’s four roundels. These sculpted images have no individual identities but collectively celebrate the figurative arts and the bodies they depend on.
Poised on a cushion with arms raised, Thomas McKeller poses for pairs of nude figures modeled in plaster relief above the rotunda’s four roundels. These sculpted images have no individual identities but collectively celebrate the figurative arts and the bodies they depend on.