An exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay on John Singer Sargent's decade in Paris. Also on display is his Madame X

The Musée d’Orsay in Paris will host from September 23, 2025 to January 11, 2026 the exhibition Sargent. The Parisian Years (1874-1884), curated by Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Paul Perrin in collaboration with Stephanie Herdrich and Alice Pratt Brown, produced in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The exhibition aims to introduce the public to the work of John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - London, 1925, a painter admired in the United States and considered the most important American portraitist of his time, but little known in France. It is to this end that the Paris exhibition will bring together more than ninety works by the celebrated artist, some of which are being presented for the first time in France, offering a path that follows the artist’s rapid and extraordinary rise. Sargent arrived in Paris in 1874, when he was only eighteen years old, to study under Carolus-Duran, and the exhibition traces his career up to the mid-1880s, a period when, after the scandal caused by the portrait of Madame Gautreau (Madame X) exhibited at the Salon, he moved to London.

During his decade in Paris, Sargent shaped his artistic style and personality within a dynamic and ever-changing cultural environment. Paris, then the world center of art, was animated by an intense proliferation of exhibitions and a unique cosmopolitanism. In this vibrant environment, Sargent found support among other expatriate artists and became fully integrated into French society, forging relationships with artists, writers and patrons. Indeed, his portraits of these personalities reflect a rapidly changing cosmopolitan society.

Although Sargent rarely depicted everyday Parisian life, the French capital was his base for numerous trips to Europe and North Africa. These travels allowed him to produce paintings of landscapes and genre scenes that combined exoticism, mystery, and sensuality. Above all, however, it was in portraiture that Sargent distinguished himself, achieving unparalleled fame, thanks to his extraordinary technical skill, sure touch, luminous colors, and bold compositions. This combination of sometimes provocative qualities won over critics of the time, who considered him the heir to Velázquez. Henry James, Sargent’s writer and friend, called the artist’s talent “strangely uncanny.”

However, in 1884, the portrait of Virginie Gautreau-which the artist himself considered “the best thing he has ever done”-raised heated controversy at the Salon. The criticism, focused on the morality of the subject portrayed, reflected the social and worldly tensions associated with the art of public portraiture in late 19th-century France. A section of the exhibition is devoted to this crucial episode in Sargent’s career, including the exceptional display of the painting, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and on view in Paris for the first time since 1884.

Based on extensive research, the exhibition also seeks to highlight the artist’s enduring ties to the city where he was trained, despite his subsequent move to London. A significant example is his contribution, in 1890, to the entry of Manet’sOlympia-an artist he deeply admired-into the French national collections. France was also where Sargent received his first institutional recognition: in 1892, the French state purchased his portrait of the dancer Carmencita for the Musée du Luxembourg.

An exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay on John Singer Sargent's decade in Paris. Also on display is his Madame X

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