The Janus Gate: An Encounter with John Singer Sargent

Art Encounters

by Douglas Rees

Everyone who looks at The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, the grand-scale painting by John Singer Sargent that hangs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, is drawn into its mysteries. Who are these four girls, dressed in prim pinafores? Why is the composition so far off balance? Why are two of the girls cloaked so completely in shadows that their “portraits” are little more than ghostly ciphers? Author Douglas Rees explores the complexities of this masterpiece with a psychological thriller that lets Sargent himself tell the story behind the canvas. When one of the girls scratches the words “HELP US” on a scrap of drawing paper, Sargent realizes that he alone has the power to save them. Will the great portraitist paint the girls as they appear—or will he show the reality of their dark, mysterious lives?

Genres: Art, Young Adult

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

I was born on October 19th, 1947 in the hospital at March Air Force Base just outside Riverside, California. My father, Norman, was a career sergeant who'd served as an aircraft mechanic and infantryman in the Philippines campaign early in the war and was taken prisoner on Bataan. My mother, Agnes, was a nurse at the hospital where he was sent to recuperate after the war was over.

Until I was fifteen, I lived on or near a number of Air Force bases in this country and in Germany. My sister, Patricia, was born in 1950 at Travis AFB.

Until I was six, I wanted to be a fireman. Between six and twelve, I wanted to be a paleontologist. When I was twelve, I decided I wanted to be a writer. I still haven't outgrown that.

I made some occasional stabs at writing and submitting manuscripts in my twenties and thirties. When I turned forty-seven, I decided to start writing things more regularly. I've been doing so ever since.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why the cover and synopsis seem to imply that this book is aimed at kids and possibly even educational. Nothing about the text (other than shortness, I guess) struck me as either. It's odd and rather draft-like little novel about artist John Singer Sargent being drawn into the psychological and possibly supernatural problems of the Boit family he is hired to paint. I think I would have preferred Rees to make up his own entirely original characters rather than trying to write a fictional story using real people especially given his choice to make Mrs. Boit insane and and abusive.

[Margaret Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. It was nearly very good.
The book’s one true fault was that it moved too quickly. The story could have stood being a 400-page novel, but is squeezed into less than 200 pages. Rees’s writing is tenable and vibrant, but I do wish there was a bit more of it. Quite a bit more.

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

THE JANUS GATE is a very different type of story. Part of the ART ENCOUNTERS series published by Watson-Guptill, it is at times a biographical sketch, a historical treatise, and a Victorian gothic story of the supernatural. THE JANUS GATE is a fictionalized account based on artist John Singer Sargent and, most specifically, his painting entitled The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

In 1882, Sargent painted the Boit daughters - Florence, Jane, Mary, and Julia - along with Julia's very large, very ugly doll, P-Paul, or Popau. Mr. Sargent met the Boit family during Varnishing Day at the Palais d'Industrie in Paris, where he found himself explaining the meaning of a painting entitled The Janus Gate to Edward Boit and his daughters. When the young girls beg to be painted by Mr. Sargent, he eagerly seals the deal; a deal that, later, he will come to regret.

If you've never seen a picture of The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, you'll be surprised to learn that it is not a happy painting. The two eldest Boit daughters hide in shadow, one looks angelic yet defiant, and the youngest, with the grotesque doll, beseeches the artist with her large eyes.

There has been, and probably always will be, controversy over this portrait done early in John Singer Sargent's career. How can this rightfully be called a portrait when two of the girls aren't even clearly pictured? Why is the doll in the painting at all? What did Mr. Sargent really see when he looked at the Boit girls?

There is truth in the saying that life imitates art. Florence and Jane, the two oldest sisters who hid in shadow in their portrait, later went crazy. Popau, Julia's doll, had a major role in leading Mr. Sargent to the brink of his own Janus Gate. Although we'll never know exactly what the artist was thinking while painting this portrait, we can know that it probably wasn't at all pleasant.

Douglas Rees has done a marvelous job of bringing art to life with THE JANUS GATE. At once a fictionalized account of a historical event and an eerie Gothic thriller, art history buffs and fans of historical fiction will all enjoy this look into the life of John Singer Sargent.

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was too Gothic for my taste. Rees obviously exercised the connection between Henry James and John Singer Sargent with this tale of spirits and madness. It was sad to learn (had to do some research on them) that the little girls who were the subject of the painting this book is based on had issues. The two eldest became mad in later life and the two youngest had emotional problems. The author was implying in the narrative of the story that Sargent must have sensed these things as the positioning and expressions of the girls are not, well, conventional, say we say. This leads to Sargent helping to exercise the spirits from the house and the girls and culminates in him burying a doll in the cemetery --could not quite suspend my belief enough to enjoy this book.

[Sunday · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fictional account of Sargent's painting of the Boit girls. A gothic psychological drama, a little far fetched at times in a Chucky meet Sargent kind of way but if you enjoy reading between the lines you should find it an intriguing read. It certainly left me hungry for more of a factual account of this mysterious painting - thus I am currently reading Hirshler's "Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting"

[Nari · Rating 4 out of 5]

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