Sargent, John Singer Not yet the famous portrait painter and muralist he would become in the 1890s, the young, cosmopolitan Sargent painted between 1880 and 1882 a remarkable group of figure compositions inspired by two extended visits to Venice during those years. Rather than focusing on the famous picturesque monuments and canals of this luminous city, Sargent portrayed predominantly working-class women within the dark, mysterious enclosed spaces of unadorned halls, courtyards and back streets. These candid scenes of ordinary Venetian life, which went unappreciated by critics initially, reflect a masterful talent by an artist then only in his mid-twenties. From studying the work of such seventeenth-century old masters as Diego Velásquez and Frans Hals, Sargent had learned important lessons that reverberate in his muted palette of gray, black and brown, highlighted by touches of red and bright white, and the broad, decisive application of brushstrokes to define form, texture and light.Although seemingly informal, if not spontaneous, in both design and execution, Venetian Water Carriers is actually carefully conceived. Within a composition centered around rectangular forms (the door and its frame, the well and its base), Sargent subtly balanced the figure of the woman straining to carry a pail with the tilt of the door hanging off its hinges. With equal mastery he varied his technique, using exacting strokes of the brush, fluidly applied, to define individual pavement stones and building up rough layers of color to simulate the peeling plaster wall....Museum Purchase, Artcyclopedia
  Books: The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent by Carl Little, et al. Hardcover (March 1999)  Book Description John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) stands among the greatest of watercolor painters, along with J.M.W. Turner, Winslow Homer, and other masters of this difficult medium. Watercolor was more than a distraction from the portrait and mural commissions Sargent labored over; after 1900, watercolor became central to his artistic vision. His aquarelles are, simply stated, masterworks. Portraits, interiors, landscapes, architectural studiesSargent's work in watercolor offers a great variety of subject matter, ranging from Arab gypsies to World War I soldiers, to masterful depictions of Venetian churches, to Florida swamp alligators. Sargent carried his watercolors on his travels; They were ideally suited to capturing the scene, the light, the air, wherever he found himself. This book serves as a record of his travels, featuring the paintings he produced in Palestine, Northern Africa, the Canadian Rockies, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Greece. Among specific locales were the islands of Majorca and Corfu; Florence, Venice, Carrara, Lake Garda, and Rome; the Alps; Lake O'Hara; the coast of Maine and the Miami River. Sargent's bold and often experimental use of the medium, which sometimes led to semi-abstract images, compels admiration among contemporary painters as well as museum goers today. In addition to placing Sargent's accomplishments in the context of his life and time, Carl Little discusses the artist's extraordinary watercolor technique. About the Author Carl Little is the author of Edward Hopper's New England (1993) and Winslow Homer: His Art, His Light, His Landscapes (1997). His essays and reviews appear in Art New England, Town & Country, and Art in America, where he was formerly associate editor. He has lectured at the Portland Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine ) John Singer Sargent by Carter Ratcliff. Hardcover (1998), John Singer Sargent by Elaine Kilmurray (Editor), Richard Ormond (Editor). Hardcover (December 1998)