End notes: John Singer Sargent’s portraits at the MET

Editorial Staff Art

“Scintillating…addictive” applauded The Guardian; “outstanding…one of the best I’ve ever seen,” acclaimed The Telegraph; “mesmerising” said The Spectator. All were describing the exhibition Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends at London’s National Portrait Gallery earlier this year. But for anyone in New York this summer, it gets even better. An expanded version of the show of John Singer Sargent’s portraits …

Talking past and present

Editorial Staff Art, Furniture & Decorative Arts

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, may be this country’s oldest continuing museum…or it may not be. Given its other distinctions, that hardly matters. Founded in 1799 by the wealthy entrepreneurs of Salem whose merchant ships sailed to India, Japan, Africa, China, the Pacific Islands, and beyond, it began with the curious idea of presenting the citizens of Salem …

The Peabody Essex Museum’s collection of Chinese export ceramics

Editorial Staff Art

from The Magazine ANTIQUES, September/October 2012 |  The objects shown are selected from the nearly three hundred examples featured in William R. Sargent’s monumental Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, published earlier this year. CHARGER, Jingdezhen,1600-1620. Porcelain; diameter 17 ½ inches. Museum purchase. The shield bearing a seven-headed hydra bifurcated by a banderole with the Latin motto Saptenti …