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Portrait study after Sargent

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Who doesn’t know the gorgeous portraits by John Singer Sargent?

He was a famous American painter, born in Massachusetts in 1820 and died in London in 1925. He is generally considered one if the most famous portrait painters of XIX Century.

His beautiful portraits speak for themselves. I’ve studied his painting technique and  many of his portraits.

Among them there is this portrait of a woman with glasses. Her severe but ironic face is so interesting my interest was literally completely captured and I decided to copy it.

I made a painting using the wet on wet method, that is I painted it in one day and tried to maintain the fresh look of the original.

Hope you like it!

Portrait of Cassandra by Sara Calcagno

Portrait of Cassandra

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I painted this portrait in 2017, after a painting workshop in Tuscany, that I organized with the wonderful American painter Michelle Dunaway

We were in Val d’Orcia, exactly in the property in which some of the most beautiful scenes of the movie “The Gladiator” were filmed. Do you remember the movie the Gladiator by Ridley Scott and starred by Russel Crowe?

We were in the Elysian fields of  the movie,  walking through the same secular alley of Cypressus trees and looking at the same fields where Maximus’ wife and son waited for him.

Cassandra, a splendid local girl that was modeling for us that day, playing the role of the Mediterranean and beautiful wife of Maximus Decimus Meridius.

An unforgettable demo by Michelle

I will never forget the morning of Michelle’s demo, and the atmosphere of the moment. The location was gorgeous, we were outside in the fields down under the alley of secular cypressus trees. Everything was simply astonishing and magic. The location was stunning, Michelle’s demo was great, the soundtrack of the movie was on, the dramatic light and the sky were fantastic, with the clouds moving fast in the sky and making the scene appear gorgeous as if we were on a stage with a gigantic bull’s eye lighning up now this hill now that one.

All this while Cassandra was standing proud and fierce looking faraway at the horizon, playing the rule better than a movie star.

That morning everything was breathtaking, wonderful and exciting and we were all very much inspired by the location, by the weather  and by Cassandra. We made so many photoshoots and videos!!

Portrait after photos

One of these many photos became afterwards this particular portrait.

Normally I like very much to paint portraits by photos but only if I took personally the photos and if I spent some time with the model of the portrait. This is because, if I took personally the photos, when I make the portrait from those photos, I can feel the same emotions and vibrations I felt while shooting them. Emotions and vibrations are essential in painting.

Of course we cannot paint well if we don’t communicate emotions and we cannot communicate emotions if we don’t feel them ourselves..

Thank you

Thanks to Cassandra for beeing such an inspiring model. Since that day I asked Cassi to model for me many times and in many different occasions and she will be also present in the paintings I’m preparing right in this period.

And thanks to my dear friend and gorgeous artist Michelle Dunaway for being such a wonderful, inspiring and poetic painter always looking for beauty.

That was really an unforgettable  workshop..

If you are interested in one of my paintings or you wish to receive more information about commissioning me a portrait, don’t hesitate to contact me by email or phone. Email: sara.calcagno@gmail.com Phone/WhatsApp  ph. no. +39 348 9136889