Portraits of an Artist

by Mary F. Burns

From 1882 to 1884, John Singer Sargent painted his greatest masterpieces-the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Madame X-haunting portraits with dark psychological depths. The first unconsciously revealed a secret that would cause great anguish in his private life; the other created a social scandal that drove him from Paris forever. Portraits of an Artist brings to life the subjects of Sargent's paintings-his family, friends, enemies and lovers-to tell his story from their own perspectives. John Singer Sargent's paintings told more than he ever wanted anyone to know.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Art, Biography Memoir

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2013

About the author

Mary Burns’ debut historical novel J-THE WOMAN WHO WROTE THE BIBLE was published in July 2010 by O-Books (John Hunt Publishers, UK). Her second novel, PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST about the 19th century portrait artist John Singer Sargent, was published by Sand Hill Review Press in 2013. This was followed by her Sargent/Paget Mystery series: THE SPOILS OF AVALON, THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, and THE UNICORN IN THE MIRROR. #4 is on the way! Other literary novels include EMBER DAYS, OF RIPENESS & THE RIVER; and a non-fiction literary essay/exploration "Reading Mrs. Dalloway".

BLOGS: Literary Reviews Blog and Portraits of an Artist and
Sargent-Paget Mysteries

Ms. Burns was born in Chicago, Illinois, grew up in the western suburb of LaGrange, and attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, where she earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees in English, along with a high school teaching certificate. She relocated to San Francisco in 1976 where she now lives with her husband Stuart in the West Portal neighborhood. Ms. Burns has a law degree from Golden Gate University, has been president of her neighborhood association and is active in citywide issues. During most of her working career she was employed as a director of employee communications, public relations and issues management at various SF Bay Area corporations, was an editor and manager of the Books on Tape department for Ignatius Press, and has managed her own communications/PR consulting business as well, producing written communications, websites and video productions for numerous corporate and non-profit clients.

Reviews

[Bardi Rosman Koodrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Portraits of an Artist by Mary F. Burns is a fascinating peek into the life of American artist John Singer Sargent at the height of his fame, and infamy.

The setting of this historical novel is Paris, the grand City of Lights circa 1882-84.

The story revolves around Sargent and his efforts to vie for juried admission to the Salon's annual exhibitions during its golden age of artistry and world prominence.

Whereas Singer was internationally touted for his mastery of portraiture, Burns portrays the artist behind his brush strokes as a pleasant albeit insecure man who would rather direct attention onto his subjects rather than his own life.

Singer never married; he and his close friends ignored whispered rumors about his sexual preferences.

Mary F. Burns addresses the question all of us who have ever viewed two of Singer's most noted portraits have asked:

What is the story behind that which we can see? Why is the eldest of the four girls in "Daughters of Edward Darley Bolt" shown in a shadowy profile and set away from her sisters?

Why did the behind the scenes drama surrounding his painting, "Madame X" ignite a scandal that threatened to ruin his reputation?

Burns is such a convincing novelist her readers will assume every storyline in Portraits of an Artist is historically accurate. Many of her readers will no doubt develop a crush on John Singer Sargent, as did I. Some will postpone their bedtimes to read "just one more chapter."

I actually missed John and the people in his story after finishing this compelling read!

[Colin Sargent · Rating 5 out of 5]

What would it be like to join John Singer Sargent’s intimate circle of friends and lovers–just as he rocks the Salon in Paris with his remarkable Portrait of Madame X?

After bringing some of Sargent’s private portrait subjects (painted between 1881 and 1884) to life as her cast of characters, Mary F. Burns deploys them in a vivid psychological mystery that flickers from Florence to Venice and Paris and sizzles through events in Sargent’s haunted, and sometimes reckless, romantic life that have been hushed in whispers for well over a century.

The circle of Sargent’s friends is a warm-blooded group of aesthetes. It’s easy to care for them. As I turned each page, I felt an increasing stake in the fortunes of people whose company I enjoyed like Ralph Curtis; Louise Burckhardt; Ned and Isa Boit; and their precocious daughter, Florence Boit.

By selecting Violet Paget as one of her most significant narrators, Burns bridges from the past to the present day, because Violet is ahead of her time and might easily be a star in today’s more sexually inclusive culture (though the Victorian world she navigates in the 1880s requires more mannered paths through secrecy, with many dark corners to negotiate). A Renaissance scholar and novelist who could slip excitingly into the supernatural, Violet wrote under the pen name of Vernon Lee. As an individual, she blurs the line between male and female and sometimes "dresses 'a la garcon.'” Burns reveals that childhood friends Violet and Sargent called each other “twin” in their correspondence. It’s a deep friendship, a psychological intimacy that is charged and revelatory. Both Violet Paget and John Singer Sargent had wealthy friends but were considerably less wealthy themselves. Both were sexual enigmas. When we meet Violet first in the novel, we know we’re passing through a doorway into an exotic world, and there’s no turning back.

Not only did this story take me insightfully into the painting process and the human dramas that inform it, I was most surprised by the ending. Wonderful, delicious fun.

[Melanie Spiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. I wanted to like it, because I know Mary F. Burns, and because I like fiction about art, and because I like learning about artists, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I honestly did like it.

Mary captures the different personalities, giving each their own voice as she works her way through a few portraits. She kept me curious about what Big Bad Thing was going to happen to besmirch John Singer Sargent's name, and although I often find multiple viewpoints to be distracting and annoying, it really worked here. I'll put this one on my shelf of to-be-loaned books and will happily read it again at some future point.

The addition of the artwork to the pages made the book seem like non-fiction (in a good way), and I loved learning about the paintings with these intimate vignettes. Thanks Mary--write some more books!

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this is a novel, not a biography. The characters’ names are those of real people who populated his life. But what they say and write are fabricated. That being said, it is so easy to get caught up in this story of artistic ambition, creative genius, commercialism v. pure art, sexual ambiguity, emotional instability, pretentiousness, and just all-around high horsiness. A good subtitle might be “The Boston Brahmins Abroad.”

[Leslie Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not an entirely satisfying read, I did finish and enjoy this read, despite it being a bit shallow. I especially appreciated the author's approach to presenting John Singer Sargent through the eyes of those he painted. It created a good sense of the world he traveled in and the dynamics and influential people who influenced and impacted his life.

While the people attached to the portraits became distinct and clear, Sargent himself remained frustratingly elusive and vague. Perhaps that was the authors point, but I wished I, as a reader, had been able to get a clearer understanding of him, his emotions, and his thoughts.

[Elizabeth Felt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible transformation occurred while I read this book. At first, the pictures on the cover and at the beginning of each chapter were merely portraits of people I didn't know. But as I read the story, and learned about the lives of the people being painted, the portraits changed. They were no longer people I didn't know, they were acquaintances, and I studied their faces and frozen gestures and learned more about them. And as I read, I began to know them and care about them. When I'd finished the book, I spent a long time staring at the portraits on the cover and was amazed at the transformation that had happened to them and to me. The portraits were alive with emotion, emotion that stirred my empathy. The concept of this novel is brilliant, and Mary Burns has brilliantly realized it.

[Craig Masten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The format of this novel, told through chapters from the point of view of various friends of Sargent who he had painted is a novel one (pardon the pun). Well written and ably researched in its general portrayal of the characters, it is perhaps top heavy in its speculations about their romantic attachments, and really doesn’t give me a much deeper sense of the somewhat mysterious and private personality of Sargent himself. Most of all though, the book suffers what to me is a fatal flaw in historical fiction: it departs too far from known facts for the sake of the story in regard to one of its characters. Makes for a totally fictional major subplot which may have created unifying drama, but tainted it for me.

[Ciji Ware · Rating 5 out of 5]

For art lovers and fans of John Singer Sergeant, this novel gives amazing insight to one of the world's best known portraitists--who actually preferred landscape painting. Art History majors, take note!

[Mary]

Hi - this is the author! I'm just trying to add my latest book to my list of books on my author page, and I'm kind of going around in circles! Maybe doing this will help?

[Katharine Ott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Portraits of an Artist" - written by Mary F Burns and published in 2013 by Sand Hill Review Press. This book is an interesting approach to getting to know a historical figure, painter John Singer Sargent. Burns has assembled the good friends and family of Sargent and imagined their interactions with him in short episodes, especially when related to several of his well-known portraits. The 1880s were a heady time for artistic and literary figures, Sargent was in Paris for most of the book, and I really enjoyed reading about the glamorous lifestyles and specifically about Sargent's approach to his art. Burns makes a point to feature the various amorous pairings of Sargent with an emphasis on male partners. After reading this book, I would love to see the huge oil "Madame X," which caused a sensation when shown at the Salon, the erotic overtones were too much for many viewers and critics. Our Cleveland Museum of Art has one oil, "Portrait of Lisa Colt Curtis, 1898," which I need to see again. "Despite his youthful peccadilloes, I think all of us, all his friends, regarded him as honest and pure, single-hearted and generous, a shining light that helped us all to see the beauty in the world a little more clearly."

[Jill Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical Fiction about John Singer Sargent, the American Expate living in Paris and then London in the late 1800s to his death in 1925. Each chapter was from the first-person narrative of one of his friends or family, which I thought was interesting, and covered 1882 to 1884 when his famous painting “Madame X” brought him down. It was a portrait of Amélie Gautreau and was scandalous because one of her gown straps was falling off her shoulder. This also ruined her reputation as a once well-known socialite. John ended up leaving Paris to begin his career again In London where he was good friends with Henry James. It did not help that he was outed for being bi-sexual (and mostly preferred men) when people started wondering why he wouldn’t marry Louise Burckhardt. John had quite a few friends who were also well-known artists and their perspectives were some of the chapters. Edward Darely Boit, Ralph Curtis (cousin), Louise Burckhardt (actress), Violet Paget (nom de plum Vernon Lee), Carroll Beckwith (roommate) and Albert de Belleroche (lover).

[RjS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the premise of this book was fascinating - learning about the artist's life by having the people he painted give their impressions of him. It was carefully planned and carried out - the research done was clear and added a great deal to the story. I felt I learnt a lot - not just about John Singer Sargent but also about the period of time and the places he lived in - and it was done in such an enjoyable way. The story is engaging - I was aware of JSS's paintings (and admire them) but had only known the stock image of him as a rather staid Edwardian portrait painter. This book revealed - layer by layer - a much more nuanced and troubled person. I was totally hooked and the book has stayed in my mind and I am sure will be frequent re-read.

"I received a free copy of this book via The History Quill Book Club."

[James Frase-White · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun read, especially for those who love John Singer Sargent. This fictionalized account, often surmised from letters written about and to the artist, as well as words thought to be his, is pure fun. I loved reading this tale as much as I love his art, which is so illuminated by the book. A number of his works "live" in Boston, at the MFA and the glorious gypsy dancer at the Gardner always awaken not just as portraiture, but a canvas that seems to be alive and awake with these interesting people. Sargent's love life, as well as his love of so many, including Henry James are illuminated. A delightful story that I am sure will bring enjoyment and inspiration to all artists and art lovers.

[Carol]

I gave the book five stars, not that it is a world-changing work, but because it is most entertaining, and my favorite type of book: historical fiction, based on real characters, well-researched, and set in the most beautiful cities and interesting cultures. This was a period of Victorian morals, which were so easily flaunted by the rich and cosmopolitan. Many U.S. wealthy citizens lived abroad, an almost nomadic life, though they brought along their treasures, comforts, and servants. They absorbed European culture, and raised their American children in that manner. WWII put an end to that period.

[Leslie K Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not an entirely satisfying read, I did finish and enjoy this read, despite it being a bit shallow. I especially appreciated the author's approach to presenting John Singer Sargent through the eyes of those he painted. It created a good sense of the world he traveled in and the dynamics and influential people who influenced and impacted his life.

While the people attached to the portraits became distinct and clear, Sargent himself remained frustratingly elusive and vague. Perhaps that was the authors point, but I wished I, as a reader, had been able to get a clearer understanding of him, his emotions, and his thoughts.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but, in my opinion, not very illuminating. Takes some innuendo about the artist and runs with it, lessening the impact of learning about him. I liked the parts discussing process and technique. I was not a fan of the gossipy nature of the bulk of the book. I suppose the gossip and innuendo explains elements of the artist’s life, but I thought the overall story suffered from this focus. I appreciated the inclusion of the paintings discussed; it gives the reader the opportunity to study - at least a little - the finished product.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The characters are distinctly drawn, with individual, convincing voices. My main quibble is that there a quite a few typos which distract from what is an otherwise very enjoyable book.

[Rhonda Ketterling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores a part of the life of John Singer Sargent the great American portrait artist. It is set in Paris, primarily, but also Italy. The story is told through the people who loved him and he loved in turn. Turns out he was probably bisexual.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A multitude of ex-pats and European characters tell the story of the rise and fall of Sargent's art career during which he painted nearly 3000 works.

[K.P. Vorenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the format of this book -- a unique approach for the viewpoint of all its characters in the development of the story. Well done!

[Molly Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting format that kept me on my toes...whose POV are we dealing with now? Once I was able to get the hang of it, I found the book interesting. Enjoyed reading about the making of the Boit daughters' portrait; it's one of my favorite Sargents. Love sick characters abound: Violet Paget, Louise Burckhardt and Florence Boit...all genuine characters from the world of John Singer Sargent...Louise, I found interesting...Violet bored me...and I hoped Florence would come to outgrow her infatuation. I'm beginning to think that unrequited love is mandatory in historical fiction...this book has more than enough of it.

[Michael Llewellyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's never anything really new in the publishing world, but Mary Burns offers a refreshing spin in "Portraits of an Artist" about John Singer Sargent. In an inspired sort of reverse reveal, the artist's subjects look at him and create their own studies in a series of telling vignettes. Each is accompanied by a thumbnail photo of their portrait to remind you who's talking. Time, place and personalities are impeccably researched and richly served as Burns exploits the incomparable ambience of late 19th century Paris, Venice and Florence, and deftly delineates Sargent's liaisons with men as well as women. My personal favorite was Amelie Gautreau, the New Orleans-born Paris socialite whose scandalous portrait nearly derailed Sargent's career. In today's far from genteel world, it's difficult to believe that the strap of a gown could wreak such devastation, but Burns will make you a believer. She paints an arresting picture of one of history's most famous portraitists.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received this excellent book as Goodread winner. Mary Burns perfectly captures the world of salons, suppers and soirees where a celebrity was a painter, poet or writer. John Singer Sargent is brought to life through the eyes of his close circle of friends and fellow artists but more importantly by his sitters and models. Because of the immediacy of images of ourselves available now through modern technology we cannot imagine what it must have been like to have a portrait revealed for all to see, where the sitter and the artist have a relationship, either good or bad.

This book has made me want to discover more about John Singer Sargent's work and I cannot wait to get to see one of his portraits.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway...thank you Goodreads! This is not the kind of book I would normally read. Although I like historical novels, I usually avoid what I refer to as "European society novels" that take you to English country houses or upper-crust society gatherings, and such things. They usually bore me, but this novel was about an artist, and I love art, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed it. It was a slow start for me, but once I got caught up in the story, I was completely captured by it. Beautiful writing that brought the art and artists of the time to life! Recommended to readers who enjoy art history and don't mind a little imagination and artistic license on the part of the author as well!

[Carole Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Portraits of an Artist for a book club that is mainly about art. I liked it very much because, even though it's historical fiction, I felt I know much more about John Singer Sargent than I previously did. I love many of his paintings so this was a pleasant experience. I also liked the author's technique of writing in the first person from multiple points of view. It gave voice to the people surrounding JSS and gave a more complete picture of him.

And as most historical fiction does (for me), I am now interested in reading more factual information about Sargent and the other characters.

[Yves Fey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Burns’ subtle and evocative ronde follows several of the subjects of John Singer Sargent’s portraits as they muse on their relationship with the elusive artist. The cleverly constructed story ebbs and flows in its intensity, but is always fascinating as the vignettes interweave in a mysterious dance. The elegant prose captures the era, the challenges of the artist’s work, and the pining hearts of many of the subjects with equal ease. Finally Sargent himself remains something of an enigma while the other characters are beautifully, often poignantly, illuminated.

[Tory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portraits of an Artist is a charming waltz through the life and times of painter John Singer Sargent. Burns weaves history and fiction together seamlessly and we get glimpses of the painter through his subjects. I've always loved the Boit sisters, those little girls scattered like orphans across a darkened room. Burns answers the why. I was captivated and transported. Hated for the book to end.

[Steve Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. Short easy chapters which are almost short stories in themselves and allow us to get know John Singer Sargent through the eyes and voices of the people who knew him best, his family friends and painting subjects. I found it an original premise to learn about one of the worlds best painters.

[Laura Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! John Singer Sargent's portraits come to life. It's the buildup of Sargent's Madame X portrait. I loved it.

[Stephanie Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this novel. It's characters are witty with original voices. The whole novel is well-written.