Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Cold and miserable

Not much to report really. Today is one of those cold, overcast, getting-ready-to-rain days that we have a lot in winter here. The cats refuse to go out and so do I.  I've been cheering myself up with this book of John Singer Sargent's watercolours:


The book documents the watercolours in the Brooklyn Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, both having large collections of Sargent's works. I've put in a few of my favourites, but all of them are wonderful.

Sargent was a great traveller, and loved to paint plein-air. These expeditions gave him a pleasant release from his bread-and-butter work of oil portraits of English and American high society.


Loch Moidart, Inverness-shire, 1896 


Statue in the Boboli Gardens, Florence. I think this is the same statue that I photographed there (but I think my viewpoint is a better one)


Fountain at Aranjuez, 1903. He makes it look so easy to do, but...!



Corfu: a rainy day, 1909. Captures well the boredom of a rainy day on holiday.


He painted many pictures of his family on holidays. This was painted in the Simplon Pass, and is titled "The tease".


Gourds


Violet sleeping

These are just a few of the delights of this book. A useful essay "Bringing back something fine" details his working methods and makes interesting reading for anyone wanting to know more about Sargent's watercolours.

Images from "John Singer Sargent watercolors"/ Erica E. Hirschler and Teresa A Carbone. Published by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Brooklyn Museum.

1 comment:

  1. Cold and grey here too. Which is unusual. We are usually crisp, clear and cold.
    Loved these images. Not an artist I knew - thank you.

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