Long before he turned his brush toward society’s upper crust, John Singer Sargent was just another artist trying to make his name in 19th-century Paris. He had arrived in 1874 to study at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts and was soon embraced by a vibrant cultural milieu. Friends like Monet and Rodin would appear in some of Sargent’s earliest portraits, which already reveal the American painter’s flair for lively brushwork and seductive psychological depth.

Many blockbuster exhibitions have been dedicated to the height of Sargent’s career, when he lived in London and painted a revolving door of aristocrats and monied arrivistes. His earlier Paris years are too often overlooked but, to mark the centenary of the artist’s death in 1925, the Musée d’Orsay has launched a landmark exhibition recognizing this pivotal decade. “Sargent: Dazzling Paris” is on view through January 11, 2026.

Although Sargent trained under the French portraitist Carolus-Duran, his first love was landscape painting. Unfortunately for him–if, perhaps, fortunately for us–ambitious artists working at this time were most highly rewarded for producing portraits. It is no coincidence that Sargent’s first major portrait was also his first admission into the illustrious Salon exhibition. The likeness was of his friend Fanny Watts, completed in 1877 when Sargent was 21-years-old.

In Paris, portraiture would prove to be Sargent’s salvation and his downfall. At the 1884 Salon, his painting of the American-born socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, better known as Madame X caused a great scandal. Though Sargent rushed to alter the work. repainting a dress strap that had fallen suggestively from Gautreau’s shoulder, neither he nor his subject’s reputations could be salvaged. The artist fled to London to begin his career anew.

Here are five portraits that provide an insight into Sargent’s artistic circles in Paris.

Carolus-Duran (1879)

At the age of 18, Sargent began studying under the French portrait painter Carolus-Duran, who found great success making society portraits. His bold and fluid technique became very fashionable, both inspiring and paving the way for Sargent.

Something of the older artist’s untraditional approach to teaching is captured in his causal pose. But eagle-eyed art lovers of the time would not have missed the red pin on his lapel, and recognized it as the French Legion of Honour, which Carolus-Duran had been awarded for his contribution to the arts. Scrawled in the upper-right corner, Sargent describes himself as an “affectionate pupil.”

François Fleming and Paul Helleu (ca. 1880)

Sargent’s eye for inventive compositions is in full force with this pairing of two artist friends, François Flameng and Paul Helleu. Flameng, in front, would go on to enjoy a long career, becoming a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1905. During World War I, he worked as a war artist on the front lines.

Helleu, behind, is seen in profile with his characteristic dark facial hair. The portrait painter is perhaps best-known for his work in the U.S., including decorating the ceiling of the main hall in New York’s Grand Central Station. His mural of a starry night sky complete with zodiac signs was covered in the 1930s but later restored in 1998.

Albert de Belleroche (ca. 1883)

Albert de Belleroche was a frequent subject for Sargent, as was Sargent for Belleroche. The beautiful Welsh painter had been born in Swansea to a father of noble French Huguenot ancestry but grew up between London and Paris. He shared a studio with Sargent, and some scholars have speculated that their connection may have been romantic.

“Sargent’s portraits of Belleroche, in their sensuality and intensity of emotion, push the boundaries of what was considered appropriate interaction between men at this period,” said the art historian Dorothy Moss. Later, Belleroche would distance himself from Sargent, a move that some have connected to the Labouchere Amendement, an 1885 act criminalizing relationships between men in the U.K.

Rodin (ca. 1884)

Sargent met Rodin in the early 1880s, and the two artists remained friends for decades. The year that this painting was made, 1884, both artists participated in the first Les XX exhibition in Brussels. Rodin had hoped to make his own bust portrait of Sargent, but the painter was reluctant to pose for him. Instead, the sculptor sent the painter a bronze statuette of St. John the Baptist bearing an inscription in which Rodin describes himself as an “affectionate admirer” of Sargent’s.

Rodin made one final request to Sargent to sit for him in 1902. The painter sent back a caricature of himself, as if to imply that his features were not worthy of real artistic interest. That same year, Rodin described Sargent as “the Van Dyck of our times.”

Claude Monet Painting the Edge of a Wood (ca. 1885)

Sargent first met Monet in Paris in 1876 and the pair immediately hit it off. The American painter’s fascination with en plein air painting inspired him to record the celebrated Impressionist in action, most likely while staying at his countryside home in Giverny in 1885.

After Sargent left Paris for London, the friends stayed in touch. “If you wanted to work in London you could stay at my studio, unless you come and pay me a little visit in the country,” Sargent wrote in 1894. “If you feel so inclined, be assured that I would be thrilled.” He also bought Monet’s work and introduced it to English audiences. When Sargent died in 1925, Monet wrote: “We have lost an old friend. It is truly a sad day.”

Also in the Musée d’Orsay exhibition are two never-before-seen gems. One 1882 painting, Madame O’Connor, of Marguerite de Ganay, on public for the first time, is particularly notable for how the styling of its sitter prefigures Sargent’s notorious Madame X, which was painted shortly afterwards. Another painting revives the story of Winnaretta Singer, a rebel American heiress whose patronage helped shape art history.