Bodies on the Threshold: The Significance of Fabrics in John Singer Sargent’s Male Nudes, 1890–1915

Abstract

John Singer Sargent’s studies of the male nude remain one of the least explored aspects of the artist’s production. Taking into account his passion for textiles, which he collected and used repeatedly in his work, this article analyses a group of charcoal drawings, watercolours, lithographs and oil paintings of semi-draped male models from the period between 1890 and 1915, some of which have never received scholarly attention. Examining them as an independent project unified by the presence of fabrics – rather than as preparatory works or isolated formal exercises – exposes the ambiguities of Sargent’s approach to the male form, which cannot be limited to clean-cut categories such as ‘academic’ or ‘homoerotic’. A closer exploration of the treatment of the relationship between body and cloth reveals the significance of the use of textiles as a means of expanding the possibilities of interpretation of these works. This might have enabled a queer reading of them within the realm of the artist’s home and studio.