Hercules Brabazon Brabazon 1895

Curator: Let's consider this arresting portrait of Hercules Brabazon Brabazon painted by John Singer Sargent around 1895, held now at the National Portrait Gallery in London. I'm struck by the texture in the brushwork, applied with apparent spontaneity. Editor: He looks like he's judging me a little, doesn't he? Maybe even unimpressed. The sharp profile and the way he looks out of the corner of his eye is really interesting. It's definitely evocative, but perhaps not entirely flattering. Curator: Sargent's bravura technique here is really quite fascinating when you consider it within the social contexts of portraiture at the time. Here we see plein-air, but it still looks deliberate. Brabazon, though from a privileged background, came into art from watercolours as a gentleman amateur, and I think Sargent respected that dedication to materiality, in a way of capturing identity beyond merely flattering the sitter. Editor: The brushstrokes, they feel almost restless. There's something about the quickness of it all that catches a fleeting expression, a certain knowing. The way he builds the form using patches of colour. It feels like a captured moment rather than a composed representation of legacy. You could say he painted that with almost loving attention. Curator: I appreciate your sense that the painting is loving. The rapid, almost gestural brushwork gives the painting a lively quality that subverts some traditional aspects of portraiture. You feel that here, the application, almost impressionistic in method, is the point of production. He is literally putting brush to the face as if he is touching and observing. I think, considering this materiality, Brabazon seems not only captured, but respected. Editor: You're right, 'respected' fits better than just loved. It shows a great skill of observation. What could otherwise come across a bit…cold, gains this vitality, warmth even. I can feel Brabazon is there, thinking his own thoughts, just behind those eyes. I feel like if I concentrate hard enough, I might catch his reflection back. Curator: Indeed. That impression that both subjects inhabit the surface is achieved through labour and thought in ways we can all now begin to comprehend.