Sketchbook ("1868-69"): Travel Sketches and Copies after the Antique 1868 - 1869

Editor: Here we have John Singer Sargent's sketchbook from 1868-69, filled with travel sketches and copies after the antique. It's a small, intimate object. What do you find most intriguing about it? Curator: It's like a little time capsule, isn't it? Sargent, so young, absorbing the world. Imagine those fingers, those eyes, already shaping a legacy. Think about the light he must have seen, the smells, the sheer *life* that poured into those pages. Did he know, I wonder, what he was becoming? Editor: That's a beautiful way to put it. It makes you wonder about the story behind each sketch. Curator: Exactly! It's not just art history; it's a portal into a burgeoning artistic soul, wouldn't you agree? It all began somewhere...