the UNIVERSITY GALLERY COLLECTION
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John Singer Sargent
British, 1856-1925
Preparatory sketches for mural,
Library of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
charcoal on paper • c.1921
Gift of Margaret Litt
The commission to decorate the library of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with a mural cycle was awarded to John Singer Sargent in 1921 and was unveiled a few months after Sargent died in 1925. The heads in the center and to the right are studies for the painting of Science, which appears in front of the main stair. The third head, to the left, closely resembles a figure in an earlier mural commission for the Boston Public Library, which was completed and installed in 1916. However, the generic facial features and pose of the figure suggests that it could also have been considered for Science in the Museum of Fine Arts, which was later rejected for a capped figure.