Early Life, Family and Training Born in Florence, Italy, on January 12, 1856, John Singer Sargent entered a world shaped by the movement of his American expatriate parents, FitzWilliam and Mary Newbold Sargent. His father had previously served as an eye surgeon at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia between 1844 and 1854. This medical background provided a stable, if transient, foundation before the family’s life became defined by the cosmopolitan rhythms of Europe. The household was one of artistic inclination; his sister, Mary, was born in 1857, and his sister Emily would later establis…