Summer 2017

Sargent’s annual trips to the mountains in the summer were binges of watercolor painting. Released from the pressure of his portrait and mural commissions, he took pleasure in the pursuit of impressionist subjects that happily evaded narrative and detail. A group of friends napping on a hillside became a study in light, color, and interlocking shapes. As they sleep, the artist is restlessly moving, creating a sense of flickering light, scattered color, and sensuous abandon. The provocative tangle of bodies seems chaotic and natural, but it has been artfully organized. Equally strategic is the white shape of the parasol, expertly reserved from clean paper and set against a wet and blurry background evoking the dreamy situation. Just as Homer painted Diamond Shoal, Sargent emerged as a new star of watercolor. Raised in Italy by his Philadelphia-born parents, he learned the medium while touring Europe as a boy. Keeping his watercolors for his own pleasure, he rarely exhibited them until 1904, when he sent four— including Gondoliers’ Siesta —to the annual exhibition of the Royal Watercolor Society in London. Knowing Venice well, he enjoyed finding fresh viewpoints to make its familiar monuments surprising. This seemingly casual glance at the Grand Canal was probably painted from a gondola, face to face with two sleepy gondoliers. The informal mood is deceptive, however, as Sargent carefully planned this subject with a graphite underdrawing, reinforced at the last with fine pen rulings that trace the carefully plotted perspective of the architecture. The warm reception of these watercolors inspired a much larger exhibition of his work in London in 1905 that established the fame of his work on both sides of the Atlantic. Gondoliers Siesta was among the first of his watercolors seen in the United States: given by the artist to his aunt, it was carried home to Philadelphia in 1905 and immediately lent to the Philadelphia Water Color Club’s exhibition of 1906. Summer 118 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Gondoliers’ Siesta, 1902–3. Watercolor over pen and ink on paper, 14 x 20 inches. Private collection. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Group (Siesta in a Swiss Wood), around 1904–5. Watercolor over graphite, with scratching out, on paper, 13¾ x 19¾ inches. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John E. Klein.