Landscape near Florence 1907

John Singer Sargent made this watercolour, 'Landscape near Florence', with fluid strokes and translucent washes. It feels like it came into being spontaneously. I can imagine Sargent standing en plein air, his eyes darting back and forth between the landscape and the paper. He's capturing the light filtering through the trees, the subtle gradations of tone, the overall mood of the place. The paint is thin, almost ethereal, allowing the paper's surface to shine through. Look at that sweep of Prussian blue defining the shadows beneath the foliage; it communicates a sense of coolness. Sargent was influenced by Impressionism but developed his own distinctive style. I think he was trying to do something similar to what Manet was doing: capturing the fleeting moment, the transient effects of light and atmosphere. Painting feels like an ongoing conversation, artists exchanging ideas across time, inspiring each other. In Florence, Sargent captures the world as he sees it, embracing ambiguity. What do you see?