Summer 2017

Like Homer, Sargent responded to white sails and hulls in a sunny harbor, here on the island of Majorca, off the coast of Spain. Despite the tranquil subject, Sargent’s effect is one of high energy by contrast to Homer’s similar harbor view from five years earlier, Fishing Boats, Key West . Simpler, calmer, broader, and more economical in his handling, Homer is plain and direct where Sargent is animated, effusive, and subtle. Typically, figures play no part in Sargent’s view, while Homer adds a note of narrative in his shouting, waving sailors. Summer 120 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com John Singer Sargent, (1856–1925), Ships at Palma (Yachts at Anchor, Palma de Majorca), probably 1908. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 12 x 18 inches. Private collection. On breaks from a portrait commission in Florida, Sargent trolled for watercolor subjects. He complained that “palmettos and alligators don’t make interesting pictures,” but his results proved the contrary. As with his dozing friends on the mountainside, or the bathing workmen at Vizcaya, he enjoyed creating a tangle of bodies that merge in the sunlight; here, a group of mud-encrusted alligators that leer menacingly at the artist. The delicate pattern of light and shade required careful drawing and a patient technique to create its effect of immediacy. As with most of Sargent’s watercolors, the illusion melts away at close range, as ominous monsters become a beautiful field of blue, lavender, and gold. Along with The Bathers, this watercolor was among a portfolio of eleven of Sargent’s Florida subjects swept up by the Worcester Art Museum from Sargent’s exhibition of his work in Boston later that spring. John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Muddy Alligators, 1917. Watercolor over graphite, with masking out and scraping, on wove paper, 13 ⁄ x 20⅞ inches. Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts: Sustaining Membership Fund (1917.86).