HIDDEN by
John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925), the most successful portrait painter of his era, lays bare his relationships with models Thomas McKeller, Wilhelm Kamp & patroness Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner while desperately seeking non-portraiture as his legacy.
McKeller became Sargent’s most "useful" life drawing model, standing in for men, women, the politically powerful, all forms of...
McKeller became Sargent’s most "useful" life drawing model, standing in for men, women, the politically powerful, all forms of...
John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925), the most successful portrait painter of his era, lays bare his relationships with models Thomas McKeller, Wilhelm Kamp & patroness Mrs. Isabella Stewart Gardner while desperately seeking non-portraiture as his legacy.
McKeller became Sargent’s most "useful" life drawing model, standing in for men, women, the politically powerful, all forms of gods, goddesses and white people. The portrait of a totally uncovered Thomas McKeller, was only displayed "discretely & infrequently" to Sargent's closest friends, never publicly during Sargent’s lifetime.
On a hot summer day in June 1922, Isabella Gardner appears at Sargent’s studio while he is sketching McKeller. She is poststroke in a wheelchair with chauffeur, a former student of Sargent, in tow seeking for Sargent to give her the many sketches he has promised her or reproduce them while she watches. She also seeks to see the painting of McKeller never shown to any but Sargent’s inner circle. The heat of the day and of the moment provide for an almost constant flow of emotional fireworks in what becomes a competitive modeling life drawing session for the two young men, and a battle of wits amongst the artist class. Will Isabella finally see “Thomas McKeller” & get her sketches? Will Tom McKeller get paid for the day? Will “the chauffeur” Will redeem himself? And will Old Master Sargent find the respect he seeks, creating civic commissions and ridding himself forever of portraiture?
Combining spoken text, life drawing, immersive imagery, and historical fact & fiction, HIDDEN invites you, to meet the artist, his patroness and his most “useful” models. And maybe answers why “Thomas McKeller” disappeared for nearly one hundred years….
McKeller became Sargent’s most "useful" life drawing model, standing in for men, women, the politically powerful, all forms of gods, goddesses and white people. The portrait of a totally uncovered Thomas McKeller, was only displayed "discretely & infrequently" to Sargent's closest friends, never publicly during Sargent’s lifetime.
On a hot summer day in June 1922, Isabella Gardner appears at Sargent’s studio while he is sketching McKeller. She is poststroke in a wheelchair with chauffeur, a former student of Sargent, in tow seeking for Sargent to give her the many sketches he has promised her or reproduce them while she watches. She also seeks to see the painting of McKeller never shown to any but Sargent’s inner circle. The heat of the day and of the moment provide for an almost constant flow of emotional fireworks in what becomes a competitive modeling life drawing session for the two young men, and a battle of wits amongst the artist class. Will Isabella finally see “Thomas McKeller” & get her sketches? Will Tom McKeller get paid for the day? Will “the chauffeur” Will redeem himself? And will Old Master Sargent find the respect he seeks, creating civic commissions and ridding himself forever of portraiture?
Combining spoken text, life drawing, immersive imagery, and historical fact & fiction, HIDDEN invites you, to meet the artist, his patroness and his most “useful” models. And maybe answers why “Thomas McKeller” disappeared for nearly one hundred years….