In 1885, Sargent was seeking solace after his experience with the Paris Salon in 1884. He had had great hopes as a painter of portraits in France with his full-length portrait of Mrs Gautreau, a painting commonly known as Madame X (pictured below), but instead the painting was the subject of scandal. Virginie Gautreau was notorious in Paris as a socialite and for her beauty.

Invited by the American artist Frank Millet to come and spend time in Broadway, a place Millet said where “portraiture was in the air”, for a couple of years Sargent became part of this artistic community which centred around Millet and his American circle. Millet lived at Farnham House and then Russell House in the mid-1880s and encouraged many writers, poets and painters to visit, perhaps the most famous of which was novelist Henry James. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who painted his own picture of roses, The Roses of Heliogabalus, during 1887-88, also visited.

Inspired by seeing a similar scene taking place while on a Thames boating trip, Sargent took the opportunity to paint his own version using his friends children as models. It’s style borrows from the Impressionists, Pre-Raphaelites and aesthetes, and he painted it en plein air, out of doors, as the Impressionists famously did. Indeed, Sargent had also been spending time with his friend Monet at Giverny.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is currently being exhibited in the Broadway section of the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Sargent – Portraits of Artists and Friends. This exhibition is on until 25 May and is being very well-received, with the Guardian claiming it to be a “Scintillating exhibition of this formidable genius”. The painting itself normally resides at Tate Britain.

John Singer Sargent, self-portrait 1906

There is also the much publicised film by Mike Leigh, simply called Mr Turner. For the duration of this biopic, Turner is already an established artist with a resolute character. The film, starring Timothy Spall as Turner, has been introduced with a plethora of plaudits, nominations, awards and rave reviews. Indeed, it is well acted and well filmed but seems to have left many cinema goers disappointed or perplexed. We get the grunting character and his solitary ways but no real sense of passion for his art. Spall allegedly took two years to learn to paint for the role, yet there is no evidence in Mr Turner of this – we see nothing more than the varnishing day bouy and some haphazard scumbling. If you know anything about Turner you will recognise the anecdotes and facts – the varnishing days, being lashed to a mast in a storm, at odds with Ruskin over Claude, the tiresome lectures, etc – but if you don’t, you may well wonder what is going on.

Here is a positive review by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian: Mr Turner review – Timothy Spall and Like Leigh command the screen

and here, a more measured review by Den of Geek: Mr Turner review

For art lovers and art historians it is always interesting to have an insight into the artist and a background to their works, but perhaps the film keeps the art itself at too much of a distance and disconnected. We recommend you remind yourself and immerse yourself into that art by catching the Late Turner exhibition while you can. It ends on 25th January 2015.