Camouflaged Field in France 1918

John Singer Sargent made this watercolour of a Camouflaged Field in France. The scene shimmers with golden light and dissolving forms. Sargent is right there, in that field, feeling the damp earth, the air, and the latent violence that simmers just below the surface. It’s such a strange subject, camouflage, but it also feels totally natural, like a landscape painting that is dissolving back into the earth. The artist is working fast, laying down strokes of wash, one after another, to capture the movement of the wind and the changing light. I can imagine him, squinting in the bright sunlight, trying to capture the essence of the place. There’s such a sense of immediacy and presence in his gestures and the way he lets the watercolour bleed and blend on the surface of the paper. He’s in dialogue with other artists, like Monet, perhaps, who were also interested in capturing fleeting moments of light and atmosphere. Artists are always responding to one another, building on each other’s ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what painting can do. They show us new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.