I'm currently reading the fantastic Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends about the celebrated American artist, John Singer Sargent.  A beautifully illustrated book written by Richard Ormond with Elaine Kilmurray coincides with an upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 30 - October 4 2015 of the same title.  Not only a painter of portraits celebrating American and European high society, Sargent also made numerous portraits, often not commissioned, of his friends, who were writers, actors, artists and musicians.