Beyond Beauty: A Portrait of John Singer Sargent

‘Entertaining, compelling, revelatory – this is the must-read biography of the year' GYLES BRANDRETH

'A masterpiece. Devon Cox's stunning biography reads like a thriller. His writing and research are without equal' JOANNA LUMLEY

The first major biography of Florence-born American artist John Singer Sargent written for fifty years, published to mark the hundredth anniversary of his death.

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) is one of the most famous American artists of all time, yet his personal life and character have remained elusive more than a century after his death. Today, as Sargent's reputation reaches new heights, the man—restless, deceptively daring, and shrouded in secrecy—is ripe for reappraisal.

Beyond Beauty delves into Sargent’s guarded inner-life, illuminating his contradictions and complexity: an outsider born and raised in Europe; a reserved gentleman with latent passions: a celebrated painter of the rich and famous who was drawn to unconventional rule-breakers.

Devon Cox explores Sargent’s visionary talent that challenged artistic and social strictures on both sides of the Atlantic, from his scandalous portrait of Madame X in Paris to his depictions of the Black bellman Thomas McKeller in Boston. Cox also reveals how Sargent’s sumptuous portraits exposed the secret, inner lives of his subjects while his sensual landscapes and dramatic murals provided clues to his own rebellious spirit and repressed desires.

Drawing on new research and unpublished memoirs and letters, Cox also sheds light on Sargent’s sexuality and intimate relationships, from his letters to and sketches of artist Albert de Belleroche, to his connection with a soldier he met while serving as an official war artist. Capturing the glamour and intrigue of the Gilded Age, Beyond Beauty is a fresh, unvarnished portrait of a legendary, enigmatic artist for the twenty-first century.