Watercolors John Singer Sargent

gondoliers siesta, c. 1904, watercolor

during sargent s long career, painted more 2,000 watercolors, roving english countryside venice tyrol, corfu, middle east, montana, maine, , florida. each destination offered pictorial stimulation , treasure. @ leisure, in escaping pressures of portrait studio, painted restless intensity, painting morning until night.

his hundreds of watercolors of venice notable, many done perspective of gondola. colors extremely vivid , 1 reviewer noted, given intensity of dream. in middle east , north africa sargent painted bedouins, goatherds, , fisherman. in last decade of life, produced many watercolors in maine, florida, , in american west, of fauna, flora, , native peoples.

muddy alligators, 1917, watercolor

with watercolors, sargent able indulge earliest artistic inclinations nature, architecture, exotic peoples, , noble mountain landscapes. , in of late works 1 senses sargent painting purely himself. watercolors executed joyful fluidness. painted extensively family, friends, gardens, , fountains. in watercolors, playfully portrayed friends , family dressed in orientalist costume, relaxing in brightly lit landscapes allowed more vivid palette , experimental handling did commissions (the chess game, 1906). first major solo exhibit of watercolor works @ carfax gallery in london in 1905. in 1909, exhibited eighty-six watercolors in new york city, eighty-three of bought brooklyn museum. evan charteris wrote in 1927:

to live sargent s water-colours live sunshine captured , held, luster of bright , legible world, refluent shade , ambient ardours of noon.

although not accorded critical respect given winslow homer, perhaps america s greatest watercolorist, scholarship has revealed sargent fluent in entire range of opaque , transparent watercolor technique, including methods used homer.

theodore roosevelt, 1903. sargent had roosevelt hold pose when turned around impatience address artist while walking around white house surveying possible locations portrait.