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Originally Posted by Cian McLoughlin
It seems that the biographies I read are mostly concerned with an artist's relationships, travels and public showings. Only rarely, hidden in a paragraph here and there, do they go into details of the day to day routine of their subject (and usually only to shock....Whistler's fainting sitters etc). It is this routine that may not be of interest to a general reader but I'm sure would be of great interest to all of us in this forum.
By routine I mean: did they mix their own paints/ stretch their own canvas? Their palette? Have sittings every day? What time did they start work? What would a sitting involve? If they were working and traveling what did their 'kit' involve? How long would a piece of work take? How many commissions would they have on the go at once? How did they deal with galleries/ agents? How much did they charge? How many stages of work were involved in each piece? etc etc It might sound mundane, but I love all this stuff!
Can anyone recommend biographies or online articles they have read that are concerned with these kinds of things? I would personally appreciate references to Sargent, Whistler and Sickert. But as a thread perhaps people could recommend any biography that they have enjoyed.
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One of the best books out there that is a hard to find is the book by de Lazlo called "Painting a Portrait". He was a contemporary of Sargent's and he painted with him, if I am not mistaken. He wrote a book on his method and there are photos of him doing demos. It's a very hard to find book but it's VERY worth it. Phillip de Lazlo is HIGHLY underrated and not too many people know about him.
Check it out!