New Britain herald., 1925-04-15

States on Friday to complete hls decorative work in the Boston pub lie library,
 sargent's last work, upon which
 he had worked recently, rnd which death leaves uncompleted. is a painting of Princess Mary. and her husband. yiscount Lascelles. Only yesterday they sat two hours for him in his Tite street studio. the exterior of which is one of the sights Of the art colony in Chelsea.
 Many of sargent's fellow aca- demicians were busy experimenting the hanging of paintings, some of them his own. in Burlington house. the home of the Royal academy, this forenoon when the news Of his death reached them.
 The public has as yet had no view of the paintings to be dis played at this years exhibition. and officials of tho Royal academy de- clined to give any indication of the nature of sargent's pictures. His name was on every tongue within the walls, of the academy, where he not only was admired and respected as an artist, but was greatly loved as colleague and gentleman.
 Jcln Singer Sargent, probably one of the best known portrait painters of recent times, was born nj Florence, Italy, 1856, the son of Dr. Fitzwilliam g. Sargent, Boston physician and author.
 Except for some periodical visits to the United States. the last of them in 1903, Sargent has made his home in European cities, and since 1884, has lived in London.
 Sargent studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, and in Paris under Carolus Duran, He has painted many portraits, both English and American. one of his best known being that of Theodore Roosevelt.
 i Leaves Unfinished Work
 Boston, April 15.-The death in London today of John Singer Sar-i gent. leaves some of the work of the great portrait and mural paint CT unfinished, On the last, of the. artists periodical visits to this city in 1923 he began series of paint ings in the rotunda of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts but returned to England leaving completion>of the work for another time.
 Although recognized as one of the great portrait painters of his time much of Sargent's fame in America rested on his mural decorations in public buildings of Boston, which was his home on many of his trins to the land of his ancestors. The best known examples of his work are to be found in the Boston public library, the Widener library at Har- yard and tho Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The two first named col lections are complete the series at Harvard having been finished in 1916.
 In 1923 Sargent installed series of paintings in the rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts. A series of decorations in keeping with the work in the rotunda was 10 have been added over the main stairway but death has intervened.
 The series of paintings in the Bos, ton public library portraying the his- tory of religion contains one com- position, "The Synagogue: over which a legislative battle was waged for several months. Efforts were made to have the painting, which portrays the conflict between Juda- ism and Christianity, removed on the ground that it cast reflections on t1fe Jewish religion. In June, 1922, the legislature passed bill ordering the library trustees to remove the painting, but a later ruling by the supreme court caused it to remain