Santa Maria della Salute 1904

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor painting, Santa Maria della Salute, capturing a Venetian vista with a loose hand and a limited palette. Imagine him standing there, probably shifting from foot to foot, squinting in the Mediterranean sunlight, trying to capture all that light in pigment, the way it bounces off the stone façade and dances on the water. What a challenge! The architecture is suggested with such simple washes of brown and grey, but what I like is how Sargent focuses on the gondolas huddled in the foreground, all tangled up and teeming with life. That dark curve of the boat in the center is so simple but so expressive. It hints at the weight and depth of the vessel, a vehicle that has moved through the waters for decades. You can imagine the artist thinking of Turner and Whistler, and all those painters obsessed with Venice, but then he just dives in and makes something quick and fleeting, all his own.