Margaret Holland Sargent also known as Meg Sargent (born December 30, 1927 in Hollywood, California) is a portrait artist based in Los Angeles, California. She has painted over three hundred oil portraits, including portraits of Tennessee Williams, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Margaret Thatcher.[1][2]
Sargent's father, Cecil Holland, was a character actor and theatrical makeup artist. He has been cited as influential on her career.[3] Sargent traveled extensively as an adult with her husband, a career military officer. She studied acting and costume design at the University of California at Los Angeles and is a member of Kappa Delta sorority.[2][4]
Herbert Abrams introduced Sargent to oil painting in the 1960s and she continued to study with John Howard Sanden in the 1970s at the Art Students League of New York.[4] She first painted in a spare bedroom of her home, eventually developing a freestanding studio on her property.
Sargent is a skilled businesswoman who has promoted herself throughout her career, employing portfolios, flyers, a website and print advertisements.[2] She has used computers and digital cameras in her work since 1997.[5]
Sargent has frequently painted portraits of officers from the U.S. military, such as Alexander Haig, James Stockdale[6] She is known for painting many of the first women officers in the United States military,[7] including Kristin Baker (first Captain at West Point), first woman graduate from West Point (Andrea Hollen),[4] and the first female chaplain in the armed forces, Dianna Pohlman Bell.[8] She painted Mary Maxwell Gates' portrait. Her artwork of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt was used as cover art for Delphine Haley's book, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt: An Uncommon Life.[9]
Sargent was the first female member of the Salmagundi Club, the American Portrait Society, and the Council of Leading American Portrait Painters.[7]
Throughout her painting career, Sargent has acted in movies, television, and commercials.[7][10]