Exhibition of work by John Singer Sargent RA and members of the Broadway Colony

Celebrating the arrival in Broadway, in 1885, of American artist John Singer Sargent, the exhibition of paintings, sculpture and letters to be held at Trinity House includes a dozen or more works by Sargent, generously loaned from public and private collections including, courtesy of Tate Britain, preparatory drawings of Polly and Dolly Barnard. These drawings were used by Sargent in his iconic work ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’, painted in Broadway gardens over the summers of 1885 and 1886, exhibited at the Royal Academy, purchased for the Nation by the Chantry Bequest, and now in Tate Britain.

Sargent was the guest of another artist from the United States, Francis Millet, not only an artist but a journalist, war correspondent and diplomat, who rented a house in the village in that landmark year. Other artist friends to visit included Edwin Austin Abbey, cartoonist Phil May, Sir Lawrence and Lady Alma Tadema, George Henry Boughton, illustrator Fred Barnard, and artist and garden designer Alfred Parsons.

At the time of publication new works are still being sourced, but significant examples of the work of these artists are will be on show, forming a unique and world-first exhibition of the group.

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Broadway has a tradition as a home of the arts, whether visual, dramatic or literary, going back to the year 1885. It was at that time a sleepy Cotswold village, and unprepared for an invasion of colourful, slightly bohemian, characters, many of them from America, an invasion that started when Francis Millet, artist, diplomat, war correspondent and journalist rented Farnham House, overlooking the village green. Well-connected internationally, Millet invited his artistic and literary friends to stay, amongst them John Singer Sargent, also American, who was recovering from both a head injury, and, more importantly, from serious negative criticism of his work following a showing at the Paris Salon. It was during that summer that Sargent conceived the idea for a work painted specifically in summer evening light, a painting that was to become, following its completion in 1886, the iconic ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’,
Artists to work here included Americans Edwin Austin Abbey and George Henry Boughton, Paul Cesar Helleu from France, and English artist and garden designer Alfred Parsons, who settled permanently. Other friends of Millet to visit included writer Henry James, and American actress Mary Anderson, who with her husband Antonio de Navarro also settled permanently in the village. With the Millets and the de Navarros at either end of the village, it is said that Broadway was never the same again, with a steady stream of notable visitors, in fact there exists copies of works by cartoonist Phil May and others, probably from Punch, depicting shocked locals merrymaking with their Yankee visitors. It is sad to record that Millet himself died when the Titanic went down in 1912, but his wife lived in Russell House for the rest of her life.

Venue:  Trinity House, High Street
Rover ticket admission

Image 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose' ©Tate, London 2009