Italy; with Sketches of Spain and Portugal.

Finley bound first edition of Beckford's beautifully descriptive account of his travels through Italy, Spain, and Portugal from the library of American painter John Singer Sargent with his ownership signature and bookplates. Octavo, two volumes bound in full morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt ruling, scrolling, and central vignette to the front and rear panels, double gilt-ruled inner dentelles, all edges gilt. From the library of John Singer Sargent, signed by him with his ownership name to front free endpaper of Vol. II and with his bookplate to the pastedown of both volumes. Widely regarded as the foremost portraitist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American expatriate painter John Singer Sargent was born in Florence to American parents and spent most of his life in Europe, particularly in Paris and London. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts under the influential portraitist Carolus-Duran, Sargent developed a distinctive style characterized by fluid brushwork, luminous handling of light, and a remarkable ability to convey the psychological presence of his sitters. His career achieved international prominence through portraits of aristocratic and cultural elites, including celebrated works such as Madame X (1884) and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892), though he later turned increasingly toward landscape painting, watercolors, and monumental mural projects such as those for the Boston Public Library. While Sargent is primarily remembered as a painter rather than a bibliophile, his personal library reflected his cosmopolitan education and artistic interests. Contemporary accounts and estate records indicate that he owned a working collection of books on art, architecture, travel, and literature—particularly volumes on Renaissance and Spanish painting, artists such as Velázquez whom he admired, and travel narratives that informed his frequent journeys throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. In very good condition. An exceptional association.