American painter John Singer Sargent was BOTD in 1856. Born in Florence (then part of the Duchy of Tuscany) to American parents, he was educated in Paris, studying art at the École des Beaux-Arts. Beginning with landscapes, he quickly found success as a portraitist, scandalising Paris society with Portrait of Madame X, a sexually daring portrait of the socialite Virginie Gautreau. With commissions drying up, he relocated to London, where he continued his career, becoming the foremost chronicler of late Victorian and Edwardian high society. Best known for his opulent full-length portraits of society women, he also created a number of male nudes (not exhibited in his lifetime) and undertook ambitious mural projects. During World War One, he was commissioned as a war artist by the British Ministry of Information, producing a number of wartime scenes. A lifelong bachelor, he surrounded himself with a number of notorious homosexuals, including Oscar Wilde, Violet Paget, Robert de Montesquiou and Edmond de Polignac. He is also thought to have had a relationship with artist Albert de Belleroche, until Wilde’s trial for gross indecency drove Belleroche towards a heterosexual life. Sargent’s friend Jacques-Émile Blanche described him as a “frenzied bugger” whose sex life was “notorious” in Paris and “positively scandalous” in Venice, with a particular fondness for gondoliers. He is thought to have had a long-term relationship with Nicola d’Inverno, one of Sargent’s models who lived with him as his “valet”. Sargent died in 1925, aged 69. Viewed for much of the 20th century as a frivolous society artist, his work was re-evaluated in the 1980s after the discovery of his male nudes, prompting a more open discussion about his sexuality and the psychological complexity of his portraits.