first, and had formed the habit of drawing carefully. Though called brilliant by some of his fellow students, it is more probable that in those early days at least, he was an example of the wellknown saying that genius means 'the transcendent capacity of taking trouble.' He was genial but shy and silent, and watched from the side the exuberant frolics of his fellow students.

He first exhibited in the Salon of 1878 the picture now in the Corcoran Gallery known as the 'Oyster Gatherers of Cancale,' for which he received honorable mention.

In 1879 his portrait of Carolus Duran attracted a great deal of attention. Soon after this he went to Spain and made a series of fine copies or interpretations of the Spanish masters. Some of these have recently attracted the attention of the world on account of the enormous prices which they brought in the Sargent Sale in 1925 in London, and a few have found a home in the collection of Governor Fuller in Boston.

Sargent's splendid picture of the Boit Children was shown in the Salon of 1883. In 1884 he painted the striking portrait of Madam Gautreau which is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This woman was politically important, and the picture was attacked by many as a caricature. Sargent was so disgusted by the great publicity which he received on account of the controversy over this picture that he moved to London. His first studio was in Kensington, but in 1885 he was established at 33, Tite Street, Chelsea. Later he bought the adjacent house to give him more room, and here he lived and died. His successes continued. In 1887 his 'Carnation Lily Lily Rose' was bought by the Tate Gallery. Many distinguished people began to flock to him to have their portraits painted.

The Royal Academy honored him and itself in 1894 by making him an associate, and in 1897 a full member. Many universities offered him honorary degrees and he gradually grew in the estimation of his contemporaries, so that undoubtedly at the time of his death a great many competent judges thought of him as the leading artist of the world.

Even in the last century he became so overwhelmed with requests to paint portraits that he refused hundreds of them. Yet he

painted so many portraits that by the year 1910 he was thoroughly tired of it and after that time seldom would paint one, though he consented to make portraits in charcoal occasionally. These he usually did in three hours or so. He executed four or five of these of his fellow members in this Club. He painted oil portraits of at least four-President Lowell, President Eliot, Mr. Higginson, and Mr. Henry James.

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He took up water-color painting again during the later years his life and painted with extraordinary facility a number of beautiful landscapes. There are critics of standing who feel that perhaps his greatest claim to enduring fame will be through these splendid spontaneous sketches.

Sargent crossed the ocean a great many times. His first visit to America, his own country, was in the year 1876. While he was here in the year 1890 the Trustees of the Boston Public Library gave the commission to him and his friend, Edwin A. Abbey, to paint some mural decorations for their handsome building recently finished. Mr. Abbey had at this time a large studio in his house at Fairford, Gloucestershire. He invited his friend to stay with him there, and for the better part of four years Sargent spent a large part of his time at Fairford. Abbey's subject was the Holy Grail, and Sargent's the various religions of the world.

Sargent studied the literature of his chosen subject and travelled in 1891 to Egypt and Greece to gather material and ideas for his first wall decoration, with its symbolic representation of the ancient pagan religions. This painting executed on canvas was first exhibited in 1894, in London, where it aroused great interest, and in 1895 it was placed in its final home in Boston, at one end of the upper hall of the Library. His painting at the other end of this hall was placed in its present position in 1902. That was the year in which he painted one of his masterpieces, the portrait of Major Henry L. Higginson, now in the Harvard Union.

In 1912 Sargent moved to Boston and finished his work on the Boston Public Library decorations. Later he accepted the commission to decorate the entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and also painted two large panels for the Widener Library of Harvard, to commemorate the sacrifice of the Harvard soldiers