Falconieri Gardens, Frascati 1907

John Singer Sargent made ‘Falconieri Gardens, Frascati’ using oil paint on canvas. The marks are dabbed on, almost like little kisses of colour, a sensuous, slow kind of looking. The paint is thick and juicy, especially in the foreground, where strokes of viridian and olive create a dense, almost impenetrable thicket. Notice how these darker greens contrast with the sun-drenched trees on the left, their trunks and branches illuminated with touches of yellow and ochre. This contrast gives the painting depth, drawing you into the cool, shadowed depths of the garden. There’s an artist, maybe someone like Bonnard, who also loves a close-up, intimate view of nature. What makes this painting work for me is how Sargent balances these close observations with the wider scope, offering not a depiction, but an experience, and a feeling of being there, as if art is always a process of call and response.