The best Sargent book yet. Volume I was good but volume II is even better. This volume covers the 1890's when the artist really got into his stride as a portrait painter and the paintings are magnificent.

The book is well set out with at least one illustration to a page often with portrait sketchs and background information if available. The quality of the reproductions is very good (as in volume I) and the information clear and well structured.

A must buy for Sargent fans (even if like me you thought you didn't need volume II because you already had volume I). The authors have done a great job.

These are some of Sargent's most beautiful compositions and color galore. He was an amazing portrait artists and still, these landscapes are out of this world. His command of the painting media was genius........sheer genius. You'll love the beauty of these pictures. The more Sargent I see.......the more I have to rub my eyes to be sure anyone could be that good.

This book is for Sargent lovers. His incredible talent oozes in these pages. I can't wait for Vol 2 of this beautiful production of Yale University Press. I got me a magnifying glass and have spent hours looking at the unbelievably grand flesh tones that Sargent commanded. You'll love reading the background data of these portrait commissions during Sargent's career. I would give it six stars if I could. See it to believe it.....if I could only paint like he did or anything barely close. One of my best of collection. Hurry up Yale and give us Vol 2.

i bought this book after seeing the sargent show at the met in new york. i have been studing it ever since. mr ormand, ms. kilmurray please hurry. you have brought the works of this great american master to life as no one has done before and i look forward in anticipation to vol 2.

Now, all art books should be judged by the standard this publication sets. All colored reproductions. To reproduce paintings in black and white is just criminal, and the people responsible for this book understands that. I simply can't wait for the rest of the volumes. I can't think of another artist more deserving of this royal treatment(Well, if they can do this for J.W. Waterhouse, I'd die happy).

I saw this exhibit in DC last week and Sargent's works were so gorgeous that it's worth your time to see it twice and wait in line. But I have to admit a great sense of disappointment in this book because many reproductions are not true to the original. The colors were not as vivid- this is really noticeable in the watercolors which were duller copies of the originals. The stories are interesting, but you can get that from other Sargent books. This book is overpriced for what it offers because you won't be able to get a sense of Sargent's brilliant colors. One good thing about this book is that it had a color reproduction of several of Sargent's works that is not available in other books. If you're looking for a better book, I suggest "Sargent Abroad."

I saw this exhibit at the Tate Gallery, London. The exhibit was terrific, though something seemed lacking in the over all presentation. Sargent is one overlooked watercolorist. He is one of the greatest, on an equal or superior platform to Homer. His Valasquez like eye made him a superior artist, though he seemed to get trapped in his facile technique in society portraits. Sargent is an amazing artist. One whose personal power has always been challenged by those that believe technique is secondary. Tell that to someone who appreciates his lively beautiful brushwork and intelligent landscapes. They won't buy it! The reproductions are not second rate as stated previously. They are rather good!The essays are good reading too.

I found a battered and bruised copy of this collection in a bookstore and had ample time to compare the quality of the pictures with many of the highly rated, thicker Sargent compendiums. While the Carter book documents the technique and career of this master of light admirably, this publication stands as the one where Sargent's work seems most marvelously luminous. Though not an expert, I believe through comparison and quick makeshift measuring that the pictures are not only rendered most accuarately, but in some cases in better aspect ratios compared to the original sizes than many of the more expensive hardbacks. What a bargain!

Ordered unseen and then attended exhibit. I was dissatisfied with color prints before exhibit and really disappointed afterwards. A graphic artist friend refused to buy the book after seing the color reproductions

I just returned with a friend from the Sargent and Italy exhibit , and I had purchased this book before going and thought the repoductions lacked vibrancy and did little for me, and after seeing the exhibit my thoughts were confirmed and I was even more disappointed , and a friend of mine who is a retired graphic artist and attended the exhibit would not purchase the book based on the reproductions

SARGENT IN ITALY does what many catalogues set out to accomplish but few achieve - document a magnificent exhibition while creating an art history book of great substance. The catalogue for the travelling exhibition SARGENT AND ITALY mirrors the elegance of the painter's touch, the intense infatuation and observation of the painter's favorite places (Venice in particular), and the intellectual atmosphere in which all of these works were created. Everyone knows of John Singer Sargent's finesse with the portraits of the wealthy and with figure painting in the studio and out on location, but few have the knowledge that Sargent found just as much life and senusality in the landscape as he did in the beautifully gowned patronesses of his career. Author Robertson is careful to include the treasurable quotes from the works of Henry James and other writers which flank many of the paintings in the exhibition and in the book. James and Sargent were close friends and colleagues, and that quality of shared observation helps make this show and this book the successes they are. The only minor flaw in the book is the quality of color reproduction which tends toward the muddy, dim side - hardly what this painter of light was all about. But the paintngs here are in other volumes where they are not as graced with the written word as they are here. A fine exhibition and a very fine catalogue/book.