Born American, growing up all over Europe and trained in Paris, Sargent finally made his home and his career in England without ever entirely losing his keen outsider’s eye for the whims of the society he celebrated. And when that society fell apart on the battlefields of France and Flanders he was still there, his images of gassed soldiers and the generals who commanded them to death and glory as sharp and resonant as ever. Then there are his landscapes: vibrant images of sunlight and shadow, conveying the sheer exhilaration of seeing with an airy splendour which challenges comparison with the work of the Impressionist friends of his Parisian youth. While on the walls of the Boston Museum of Art and Harvard University his murals reveal a talent as apt for the organisation of large-scale dramas as the intimacy of individual faces. This lecture explores the achievements of this remarkable and multi-talented painter.