John Singer Sargent - Watercolors

Erica E. Hirshler, Teresa A. Carbone, Annette Manick, Antoinette Owen, Richard Ormond

John Singer Sargent's approach to watercolor was unconventional. Disregarding contemporary aesthetic standards that called for carefully delineated and composed landscapes filled with transparent washes, his confidently bold, dense strokes, loosely defined forms, and unexpected vantage points startled critics and fellow practitioners alike. One reviewer of an exhibition in London proclaimed him "an eagle in a dove-cote"; another called his work "swagger" watercolors. For Sargent, watercolors were not so much about swagger as about a renewed and liberated approach to painting. His vision became more personal and his works began to interconnect as he considered the way one image--often of friends or favorite places--enhanced another. Sargent chose to participate in only two major watercolor exhibitions in the United States during his lifetime, both at the urging of his friend and...