A great opportunity if you're in the area to see these splendid watercolors!
Here is the write up from the Brooklyn Museum website:
This landmark exhibition unites for the first time the John Singer
Sargent watercolors acquired by the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, in the early twentieth century. The culmination of a
yearlong collaborative study by both museums,
John Singer Sargent Watercolors explores
the watercolor practice that has traditionally been viewed as a
tangential facet of Sargent’s art making. The ninety-three pieces on
display provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to view a broad range
of the artist’s finest production in the medium.
Brooklyn’s thirty-eight watercolors, most of which have not been on
view for decades, were largely purchased from Sargent’s 1909 debut
exhibition in New York. Their subjects include Venetian scenes (
The Bridge of Sighs), Mediterranean sailing vessels, intimate portraits (
A Tramp), and Bedouin subjects (
Bedouins).
Boston’s watercolors, purchased in 1912, are more highly finished than
the Brooklyn works. They feature subjects from his travels to the
Italian Alps, the villa gardens near Lucca, and the marble quarries of
Carrara, as well as portraits. The exhibition also presents nine oil
paintings, including Brooklyn’s
An Out-of-Doors Study, Paul Helleu and His Wife (1889) and Boston’s
The Master and His Pupils (1914).
New discoveries based on scientific study of Sargent’s pigments,
drawing techniques, and paper preparation are featured in a special
section deconstructing his techniques. Select works throughout the
exhibition are paired with videos that show a contemporary watercolor
artist demonstrating some of Sargent’s methods.
