The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
The Watercolors of John Singer Sargent Details
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. Read more
Reviews
There are a couple of books on the market with this subject. Both are good enough while not exhaustive or particularly well presented. Certainly Sargent's watercolors are something to want to see. His mother made watercolors and early on encouraged her son's penchant for art. His talent, thus, has years of experience behind it. And it shows. His brushwork is facile and fascinating. His color sense exquisite. And it doesn't hurt that he visited the beautiful sites of Europe recording his travels on paper. Only later in life did he learn that his watercolors could be sold, for before that they were merely for his own pleasure as studies for oil paintings, sketches of his surroundings, or gifts for friends. His friends say he was always painting, and watercolors were one way he kept at it even in casual social circumstances. Some of them are masterpieces of tone and coloration. All will inspire anyone hoping to make watercolor art. Yet there is no one book that does the work justice. And while this one falls short, it is better than nothing and even if not the best paper to show off the works, the collected images may still be worth the purchase.
