CREATING A RUCKUS: “El Jaleo” by John Singer Sargent 

EL JALEO by John Singer Sargent, Oil, 7′ 10″ x 11′ 5″, 1882, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston
While most of the European art community in the late 19th century was going gaga over the influence of Japonism, and collecting and studying Japanese woodcut prints, there was a movement of painters fascinated by Spanish and Moorish culture. Among those was the artist John Singer Sargent. In 1879 Sargent toured Spain and North Africa, producing countless watercolor studies and oils.
Out of that journey came a germ of a subject that incubated in his mind for over a year. The result was this painting El Jaleo. This is a monumental painting measuring nearly 12 feet wide, and depicts a Spanish dancer performing a flamenco style dance.
Jaleo in Spanish means a ruckus, an apt name for this scene. It is a mad, intoxicating performance by this troupe of dancers and musicians. Viewing this painting you can almost hear the strumming of the guitars, clapping hands, the clacking of castanets, and hammering high heels of the dancer, punctuated by yelps from the other participants.
Center stage is the most striking, dramatic dancer, dressed in traditional flamenco garb, with a shaw that.
There’s a wonderful theatricality to this work as it appears to be lit by a bank of footlights casting an enormous shadow of the dancer on the back wall. The sheer scale of the work makes you feel that you are there, right on the dance floor.
The painting is populated with colorful characters, which makes one overlook the fact, that except of bits red and orange here and there the painting is largely monochromatic.
The final work was preceded by a number preliminary drawing and paintings including this single portrait of the main figure entitled, The Spanish Dancer.
Sargent was a bravura painter. I can think of no other painter in history that had such command and facility with a brush as did Sargent. His work appears almost effortless.
Sargent was only twenty-three when he completed this work but it cemented his reputation as a painter the first order.
THIS PAINTING IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AS A HANDMADE OIL REPRODUCTION FROM 1ST ART GALLERY: www.1st-art-ga...