Falconieri Gardens, Frascati 1907

John Singer Sargent's "Falconieri Gardens, Frascati," now in a private collection, is a real feast of thick oil paint. You can almost feel the brushstrokes that build up the trees and foliage. I wonder, was Sargent out there, lugging his easel, trying to capture that dappled sunlight, or was this conjured up later, back in the studio? The greens are so intense, almost vibrating against the browns and yellows. Look at the way he's built the surface, those stabs of paint suggesting leaves and branches. It’s so physical, this process of pushing paint around. It’s like he’s wrestling with the scene, trying to pin it down. Sargent's work is part of a long lineage, an ongoing conversation among painters about how to see, how to feel, and how to translate those feelings into something tangible. We all learn from each other, riffing on what came before, pushing things a little further. Ultimately, painting is about embracing the messy, the unresolved, and trusting that something interesting will emerge.