'Sargent and the Sea' at the Corcoran Gallery
Atlantic Storm
Last night I finally got a chance to see the Corcoran Gallery's wonderful exhibit Sargent and the Sea. American expat painter John Singer Sargent is probably my favorite western painter, and he's easy to love - he's well-known for his fascinating portraits, as well as landscapes and other paintings. Sargent and the Sea collects about 80 works from Sargent's early period, about 5 years between the ages of 18 and 23 and it is comprised of sketches and drawings from his sketchpads and scrapbook as well as studies and oil sketches for larger paintings, and it includes a wonderful quartet of paintings inspired most likely by a transatlantic voyage from France to the U.S. with his mother. A couple of the paintings in this show, notably those of the fisherfolk in Cancale, are well-known, but some of the others have never been exhibited before, and while Sargent's work has been exhibited many times around the world, no one has ever mounted an exhibition of this period and theme before.
I peeked through the Sargent galleries for about fifteen minutes before attending a talk given by the exhibition's curator, Sarah Cash. The 45 minute talk ended up being 90 minutes in the end, and although she was long-winded and a bit scattered, she imparted loads of information, so when I went back up to the exhibit with my friend, the works became even more interesting to me. One of them, a small oil painting of seaweed-covered rocks with a mauveish sea and sky, utterly captivated me, despite its diminutive size and the simplicity of the image. One surprised me, a small painting of a boat in the waters off Capri. I've included the image below, but it does no justice to the original which is all gorgeous turquoise tropical water, like nothing I've ever seen in Sargent's oeurve. One of my favorites of this exhibition is that of a ship at sea, in which we are staring down a steeply slanted deck in stormy seas, partly because it's so dramatic with mountainous waves in the background. Another of a sinking ship at sunset also seized my attention.
Atlantic storm
This is the same painting as the above, only a bit darker reproduction. I couldn't decide which was closer to what I remember seeing.
Seascape
The Derelict
One of two paintings depicted this sinking ship that scholars believe Sargent probably saw on his 1876 transatlantic voyage.
I don't remember the title of this one, but it illustrates women laying fishing nets out to dry on the French coast.
Two Boys on a Beach with Boats
This one was painted somewhere in the Mediterranean, I believe.
En Route pour la pêche (Setting out to Fish)
There are two versions of this painting, a larger one that was displayed at the Salon in Paris and a smaller version of this image that was exhibited in New York City. The French version bears this title since the popular title (The Oyster Gatherers, or more correctly "Fishing for Oysters at Cancale") couldn't be true: the government restricted oyster gathering in France in summer. But New Yorkers were in the midst of a massive oyster craze, so Sargent, in a savvy marketing move, adjusted the title of the smaller NY work to something he thought might attract New Yorkers' attention. The strategy seemed to work - the NY work apparently drew several reviews while, if I remember correctly, the Paris work only drew one.
En Route pour la pêche (Setting out to Fish)
A different reproduction of the same painting.
A Boat in the Waters off Capri
The colors are completely off in this one - the waters are turquoise in the original and the sands are whiter. It was really shocking because nothing had prepared me for the fact that Sargent had ever painted something like this before.
Boats II
Beach at Capri
I love the bright sun in the background.
Neapolitan Children Bathing
The one little boy is wearing a version of water wings - inflated animal bladders. The curator explained that this painting is believed to be a commission.
Another image of the sinking ship.
