Portrait of Gustav Natorp

After his teacher, the French artist Carolus-Duran, Sargent's heroes in the genre of portraiture were the17th century painters Velásquez and Frans Hals. And while he produced a number of important subject paintings including landscapes and interiors in which he experimented with different Impressionist techniques, portraiture was to become Sargent's artistic and commercial triumph. Born in Italy to American expatriate parents and raised in Florence and Paris, Sargent eventually settled in London in 1886 where he immersed himself in the high society of Edwardian life. Rising quickly as one of the leading portraitists of the day, his clients were found on both sides of the Atlantic, with Americans soon outnumbering his European followers. The portrait of Gustave Natorp, a friend of the British poet Robert Browning was likely painted on one of Sargent's trips to London prior to his settling there.