Seated Model with Drapery 

Editor: So, here we have "Seated Model with Drapery," a charcoal drawing by John Singer Sargent housed here at the Fogg Museum. I’m really struck by the texture he's able to achieve with charcoal. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Well, let’s consider the charcoal itself. Where did it come from? Who produced it? This isn’t just about Sargent's artistic genius; it’s about the industry supporting that genius. Academic figure drawing like this was itself a manufacturing process: the training of artists within academies required materials, models, and studios that operated according to the politics of production and consumption. Editor: That's a really interesting point. It never occurred to me to think about the materials themselves, and the economic systems that produced them. Curator: Precisely. Think about the labor involved, too. The sitter, of course, is work – a body offered up for scrutiny. Sargent makes quick, deliberate marks; each conveys a particular pressure on the charcoal, and an understanding of how its material quality can deliver tone, mass and a sense of three dimensions, not only of a ‘model’, but one that alludes to human condition. Editor: I can see how those quick strokes create such depth, almost sculptural. Is that something that ties into its historical context? Curator: Absolutely. We need to consider the drawing itself a ‘made’ object. Its visual strategies derive not merely from “artistic genius” but the economic relations that support artistic manufacture, the commercial market that distributes those images as ‘high art’. To fully ‘read’ this drawing, one must attend to a broad network of materials, persons and forces. Editor: I’m beginning to think about it so differently. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure. Considering the whole production chain transforms how we value the end ‘product’, doesn't it?