Presented by the American Inspiration Series from American Ancestors/NEHGS and Boston Public Library, in partnership with GBH Forum Network, a groundbreaking new biography of the celebrated painter John Singer Sargent and a page-turning exploration of an epochal time in art history, and in America. John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is a great American artist who lived among and painted the opinion-leaders and society kingpins of his day. He is also an abiding mystery. Sargent scandalized viewers on both sides of the Atlantic with the frankness and sensuality of his work. He charmed his wealthy patrons, but reserved his greatest sympathies for Bedouins, Spanish dancers, and the gondoliers of Venice. At the height of his renown in Britain and America, Sargent quit his lucrative portrait-painting career. In _The Grand Affair_, the scholar Paul Fisher offers a vivid portrait of the buttoned-up artist and his unbuttoned work, following his trans-European childhood to his spirited travels as an adult to his late-life journeys with his friend and patron Isabella Stewart Gardner. Fisher’s illustrated talk and discussion provides insight into on Sargent’s extensive work at the Boston Public Library, the mural cycle “The Triumph of Religion.” This talk is modoerated by Meghan Weeks, an artist and cultural heritage professional with an academic background in historical structures, painting, and curating.