an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in
Philadelphia. After his older sister died at the age of two, his mother Mary suffered a mental collapse and the couple decided to go abroad to recover. They remained nomadic expatriates for the rest of their lives. Though based in Paris, Sargent’s parents moved regularly with the seasons to the sea and the mountain resorts in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. While Mary was pregnant, they stopped in Florence, Italy because of a cholera epidemic, and there Sargent was born in 1856. A year later, his sister Mary was born. After her birth Fitz William reluctantly resigned his post in Philadelphia and accepted his wife’s entreaties to remain abroad. They lived modestly on a small inheritance and savings, living an isolated life with their children and generally avoiding society and other Americans except for friends in the art world. Four more children were born abroad, of whom two lived past childhood.
Biography