Mugs

Firmly established as a genius for his lush portraits, John Singer Sargent was financially set and hungered for new artistic challenges. But what to do with the long line of patrons who pestered him with requests for a sitting? He agreed to simple charcoal sketches, completed in roughly about an hour, which he called 'mugs'. Hundreds of these sketches exist, despite their simplicity and lack of color, Sargent's ability to flatter the sitter is unmistakeable.